Last Days!
And just like that, the final weekend of the 2011 Melbourne Festival is upon us. But we've managed to cram an overwhelming amount of visual art, theatre, dance and music into the final couple of days.
There's the glittering theatrical fantasia of Whiteley's Incredible Blue, the highly topical polemic views of Jello Biafra, the hip-hop-meets-Papuan-folk-dance of Jecko Siompo's We Came from the East, the mind-bending, Shakespearean mischief-making of The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane (pictured below), the high-flying, ultra-percussive acrobatics of
the Tom Tom Crew and the surging, orchestral beauty of KURSK: An Oratorio Requiem - and much more besides. Whether you're looking for one final taste of Melbourne Festival for the year, or to luxuriate in a binge of closing weekend events, there's plenty to tempt you.
Read some of the reviews from the last week here. |
Toumani Diabaté performance cancelled
Arts Projects Australia and the Melbourne Festival deeply regret to announce that Toumani Diabate's Melbourne Festival appearance on Monday 24 October has been cancelled.
All patrons will be able to receive a refund for their tickets via the relevant ticketing outlets. Refunds must be requested no later than close of business Monday 31st October.
More information here
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notes from the hard road and beyond
This Saturday evening features the Festival's triumphant closing night spectacular, notes from the hard road and beyond. A once in a lifetime musical collaboration, this concert witnesses three generations of singers and musicians coming together for an evening of song, hope and inspiration.
The culmination of a year's worth of planning and rehearsal, notes from the hard road charts a course through the last 80 years of protest music. The night will see artists such as Joss Stone, Mavis Staples, Emmanuel Jal, Rickie Lee Jones, Archie Roach, Paul Dempsey and more coming together in a sequence of one-off duets, collaborations and covers. From Archie Roach covering Nick Cave's Into My Arms, to Paul Dempsey and Joss Stone linking together on Throw Your Arms Around Me and Joss Stone and the Black Arm Band singing I Am Woman, this is sure to be an unforgettable way to cap off a fantastic Melbourne Festival.
We are also very pleased to announce that General Admission tickets to the concert are now only $40. Come and enjoy a truly unique musical celebration under the stars in one of Melbourne's finest live music venues.
More information and ticket bookings
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Angels-Demons. Parade
By and large, six metre tall, jet-black demon babies are hard to miss, but if you haven't yet made time to stroll through the Festival precinct admiring the six adorable monstrosities lining Swanston Street, then this weekend is your final chance.
The ambitious and remarkable brainchild of Russian art collective AES+F, Angels-Demons. Parade is a monumental and mischievous work of public art, and the first such installation to ever be hosted at the Melbourne Festival.
More information
One of the Angel-Demons overlooking the proceedings at Melbourne City Square. |
Visual Arts Program
Even when the final bow has been taken, the final curtain has been drawn and the last of the applause has died away, Melbourne Festival continues with its innovative visual arts program. Continuing for the next few weeks, there's still plenty of time to witness some of the most exciting and provocative art that Melbourne and the world has to offer. |
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A collection of recent work that plays upon and disrupts the relationship between artist, object and audience. Irreverent and ambitious, this is art that truly does draw its power from the people. |
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An exhibition of new video projection art from the Asia Pacific region that explores our experiences of intimacy and privacy within the often overwhelming public spaces we exist in. |
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A tribute to the women who stood at the forefront of Australian feminist art practice in the pivotal decade between 1975 and 1985. Collating a series of works that explore the place of time as subject and metaphor, A Different Temporality is a compelling document of a time when bodies, technology and art were bridging together in unforseen and extraordinary ways. |
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Art goes immersive VR in It's a jungle in here, a real-time computer simulation that uses your video-mapped face to play out a series of increasingly unsettling one-on-one encounters.
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Brings together new and classic work from two masters of the modern avant-garde, Germany's Andreas Exner and Melbourne's own Rose Nolan. Mischievously disrupting the cosy familiarity of basic objects, these two create art that makes us reconsider our relationship to the everyday world.
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Finishing on Sunday, this weekend is your last chance to see this international array of acclaimed classic and contemporary photographic projects, brought together by the themes of surveillance and the faltering relationship between the photographer and the photographed. |
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Two remarkable new video art explorations. Germany's Harun Forecki serves up a four-part investigation of the role of surveillance in our lives, while indigenous artist Vernon Ah Kee remixes and reconfigures news coverage and mobile phone footage to create a new narrative of 2004's Palm Island riots. |
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Melbourne Festival Lounge
This year the Melbourne Festival Lounge is going out with an almighty bang, with both Friday and Saturday playing host to our biggest parties yet.
Friday 21 Oct
At 9 pm, a very, very special guest as the one and only Jello Biafra joins us for a ninety minute set that is sure to be illuminating, infuriating and masterfully entertaining in equal measure. Jello will be followed at 10:30 pm by the final performance of the Festival's own Love Birds, a raucous and racy cabaret explosion in true Tropicana style.
Sat 22 Oct
This is it. The closing night extravaganza. Come down after notes from the hard road and beyond to dance the night away as DJs, bands, cabaret and more come together to craft a party to remember. There'll be food. There'll be drink. There'll be dancing. There'll be brand new best friends you can't remember the name of the next day. It will, in short, be a fittingly extravagant way to wrap up a superb 2011 Melbourne Festival.
More information
The Lovebirds performing at Melbourne Festival Lounge |
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Whitemoss keeps our office beautiful!
Whitemoss is the creative team behind the beautiful flowers presented to the artists on stage and at the Galleries at this year's Festival.
We love their style and service and particularly the way they keep our office looking beautiful. Click through to read more about Whitemoss. |
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Meow Meow returns to Malthouse
Melbourne's favourite cabaret mistress, Meow Meow, returns to Malthouse Theatre with a story to defrost even the coldest of hearts.
Malthouse Theatre have a special offer for eNews subscribers to attend this divine little show.
Click through to find out more |
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Australian Chamber Orchestra 2012 Melbourne Season
The Australian Chamber Orchestra recently launched their 2012 season with some brilliant highlights planned for Melbourne.
Click through to find out how you could win tickets to their first 2012 Melbourne performance. |
