Dark Mofo director steps down,as 2023 festival dates announced

After a sometimes controversial decade as the creative director of Dark Mofo,Leigh Carmichael is stepping down from Tasmania’s popular winter festival,which will run June 8-22 next year.

Carmichael has led the midwinter arts and music festival since its establishment in 2013. Next year – the tenth instalment of the Tasmanian tradition – will be his last standing at the creative helm,with a new artistic director to take over from 2024 onwards.

Dark Mofo’s Leigh Carmichael will step down from his role as creative director after the 2023 festival.

Dark Mofo’s Leigh Carmichael will step down from his role as creative director after the 2023 festival.Amy Brown

“I feel that after ten years curating the Dark Mofo program,it’s time for new energy and new ideas to move the festival forward,” Carmichael said in a statement on Monday. “Dark Mofo occupies an important place in the Australian arts landscape,and I am confident that it will continue to provide opportunities for artists and audiences to experience challenging art in the darkest weeks of the year.”

Carmichael’s tenure with the unconventional festival has faced some controversy,most notably in 2021 when the festival’s team was criticised for their plans to show Spanish artist Santiago Sierra’s artwork,Union Flag– aUnion Jack flag soaked in the donated blood of First Nations peoples from colonised territories.

“We made a mistake and take full responsibility,” Carmichael said in a statement following the exhibit’s cancellation. “We apologise to all First Nations people for any hurt that has been caused.”

The project caused divisions within Dark Mofo,sister festival Mona Foma and parent gallery MONA (Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art). A petition labelled“Blak List” MONA was even created on the grounds of the organisation’s “unsafe working environment for First Australian artists”.

Consequently,Dark Mofo announced a $60,000 fund for Aboriginal artists,and appointed First Nations cultural advisors in 2021 including Palawa visual artist and photographer Caleb Nichols-Mansell.

Winter Feast,the food component of Hobart’s annual Dark Mofo winter festival.

Winter Feast,the food component of Hobart’s annual Dark Mofo winter festival.Jarrad Seng

Other controversial Dark Mofo exhibits included the use of inverted Christian crosses (a symbol commonly associated with Satanic practices) and the public showcasing of a computer-generated man being beaten to death.

Although he is relinquishing his role as creative lead,Carmichael will remain director of DarkLab,the production group behind Dark Mofo,where he will focus on alternative large-scale cultural projects throughout Tasmania.

“I will be devoting more time and energy into DarkLab’s other cultural projects and pushing for better venues and more public infrastructure for Hobart so that it can cement its place as a vibrant cultural city,” Carmichael said.

Current DarkLab projects include the “Transformer”,a permanent artwork by Doug Aitken located at Ida Bay in southern Tasmania and slated for completion in January 2024,and the development of the 400-person live music venue In The Hanging Garden in the heart of Hobart.

Created as a celebration of the dark through various art exhibits and musical performances – and held on the winter equinox,the longest night of the year (which is even longer in Hobart than in any other Australian capital city) – Dark Mofo explores connections between ancient and contemporary rituals. Previous years have featured prominent artists such as FKA Twigs and The Kid Laroi,as well as the now-traditional nude solstice swim in the Derwent river.

The festival’s continuation has been confirmed,but a new artistic director is yet to be announced,with DarkLab stating it is searching for someone who aligns with the festival’s “perennial themes around the regenerative aspects of the midwinter solstice and Dionysian revelry”.

Dark Mofo 2023 will run from June 8-22 in Hobart.

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Nell Geraets is a Culture and Lifestyle reporter at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

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