Make your merry way through a giant, breathing sculpture of colour and light—part technicolour temple, part inflatable rabbit warren—sprawled along the banks of the Tamar. With 19 egg-shaped domes and a colossal cavern inspired by the Roman Pantheon, this modern-day maze is named for the mythological figure of Daedalus, architect of the labyrinth that held the Minotaur. Listen out for music created by Jim Moginie from Midnight Oil.  

__Online tickets are almost booked out for Sunday. Door sales are available from 10AM each day but be prepared for some queuing.__  

#### Supported by Brickworks

Architects of Air

Let us whisk you away from the city to the bush for a twilight celebration of palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) art, architecture, language and food.
 
You and a small crowd will spend the evening inside a specially designed, contemporary lina (a palawa bush hut dwelling), where you’ll be treated to an elemental tasting menu by talk-of-the-town foodies from palawa kipli. The dishes will feature traditional palawa ingredients sourced from around the island—the name, kipli paywuta lumi, means ‘food to sustain us’ or ‘food across time’—and there’ll be stories, too, and a new sound work to listen to. It’s a meditative affair, you see—food, of course, but also a gathering of community and quiet reflection, and a moment of mid-festival calm.
 
P.S. You can also visit the site without a meal ticket; check out the installation opening hours and just turn up.  

Tickets to the afternoon and evening sessions have now sold out  
[Join the waitlist](https://monafoma.net.au/waitlist)  

<small>Evening and afternoon sessions have a set menu and dietary requirements cannot be catered for. Evening and afternoon tickets include return bus trip to and from Trevallyn Nature Reserve. From there, it’s a fifteen-minute walk along a bush track to the site. If you have mobility requirements, please contact [tickets@mona.net.au](mailto:tickets@mona.net.au) in advance to discuss alternative access options.</small>  
 
#### Collaborators:
#### Dave mangenner Gough (Trawlwoolway)
#### Anna Liebzeit (Koorie)
#### Tim Sculthorpe (Palawa)
#### James Tylor (Kaurna)
#### Samantha Rich (Wiradjuri)
&nbsp
&nbsp  
#### Curatorial Group:
#### James Tylor (Kaurna)
#### Zoe Rimmer (Pakana)
#### Emma Pike
#### Pippa Mott
&nbsp
&nbsp 
#### Thank you to the many palawa cultural practitioners and community members who have contributed knowledge and advice to this project, including the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre and the palawa kani language program, the Aboriginal Elders Council of Tasmania, Patsy Cameron, Tony Brown, Greg Lehman, and Andry Sculthorpe (TAC Land and Heritage Project Officer). Thank you to the kanaplila-ripana youth dance group for finding a name for the project site, mumara luwili (wooded valley), and to Judith-Rose Thomas for her designs on the interior of the lina (palawa bush hut).  

#### palawa kani, the language of Tasmanian Aboriginal people, has been used in this project with thanks to the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre. palawa kani language featured in the sound piece spoken by Cooper Marshall, Ada Marshall, Eva Plank, Thomas Riley, Merinda Sainty and Theresa Sainty.  

kipli paywuta lumi

Akio is a trailblazing sound artist, who hurled objects down stairways in the 1960s to experience their echoing, resonant sounds within architectural spaces, thus changing the world of sound art forever.
 
For us, he’s going to create a sound walk for Launceston, called *o to da te* (or ‘listening point’), by listening in to the particular sounds of this fine town and then mapping it out for others to follow. This work will live on as a legacy for Launnie.
 
He’ll then also perform at the Festival Hub, and in collaboration with Aki Onda and Hiromi Miyakita, mixing sound art and improvisation on unusual instruments: low-tech and primitive objects from nature and the human world.

Akio Suzuki will also perform at [Morning Meditations](/program/morning-meditations).

### Pick up a printed copy of the *o to da te* map at the following venues:   
- QVMAG Reception, Inveresk Precinct  
- Mona Foma Hub Box Office, Inveresk Precinct  
- Launceston Visitor Information Centre, Cameron Street  

#### Supported by the Australian Government through the Australia-Japan Foundation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Akio Suzuki

Ludovico is a superstar, famed for his rippling, cinematic music and for playing a grand piano floating among icebergs in the Arctic. Here for us, he’ll perform his immersive new project, *Seven Days Walking*: a seven-part cycle released over seven months and inspired by a winter’s walk through the Alps.

#### Presented by Mona Foma in arrangement with Arts Projects Australia

Ludovico Einaudi

Venture back to the future with iconic masterworks by the maverick grandpapa of electronic music, Karlheinz Stockhausen, recreated for you tonight to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Stockhausen’s 1970 performance in Launceston—which also took place at the grand old Albert Hall. 

Stockhausen / Launceston / 50

Come one, come all, to our natural amphitheatre of rock and water (aka the Gorge) for a larger-than-life puppet extravaganza based on Alfred Jarry’s *Ubu Roi*: a wild satire of power and greed from nineteenth-century France, updated here for modern-day Launceston.
 
It’s a rollicking tale for the times—the story of a raging buffoon and wannabe dictator on a revolutionary rampage. ‘And it’ll be bigger than Ben Hur,’ says Festival Dad Brian Ritchie. But with more puppets and stuff, including performances by the local Launnie community and live music by Ritchie and his musical mates.

### GETTING TO KING UBU  
__Free Bus__  
Coming from town? Your best bet is to jump aboard our free buses. They depart the Brisbane Street bus stop outside Launceston College—look for our big, colourful sign—every 20 minutes from 6pm onwards. Return buses depart from the Tiger bus stop at the First Basin car park. Last return departs at 10pm. 

__Drive__  
Park your car at West Launceston Primary School (on the oval) then trot down the road to the Gorge. Available from 6–10pm. Enter at 24 Basin Road, West Launceston.  

#### Director: Sam Routledge
#### Musical Director: Brian Ritchie
#### Writer / Dramaturg: Willoh S. Weiland
#### Sound Artist: Dylan Sheridan
#### Musical Arrangements: Dean Stevenson
#### Band: Dean Stevenson, Emily Sanzaro, Spike Mason and Yyan Ng 
#### Puppet Maker: Bryony Anderson
#### Stage & Lighting Design: Additive
#### Costume Designer: Sabio Evans
#### Onesie Designer: Adele Varcoe 
#### Cast: Kris McQuade, John Xintavelonis, Denni Proctor, Marcus McKenzie, Anna Barber, Lucy McDonald and Lauren Neal
#### Puppeteers: Felicity Horsley, Shannon McGurgan, Sofie Burgoyne and Rachel Arianne Ogle
#### Performers: Allstar Cheer and Dance, City of Launceston RSL Band, Encore Theatre Company, Launceston College, Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre’s Youth and palawa kani Language Programs
#### Props: Denni Proctor and Gabbee Stolp
#### Sound Engineer: Tom McKeand
#### Lighting Operator: Michelle Thorne
#### Producers: MONA FOMA and Insite Arts
 
##### This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Department of Communications and the Arts’ Festivals Australia program and the City of Launceston Event Sponsorship Program  

#### King Ubu is an original adaptation of the play Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry (translated from French by Simon Watson Taylor and Cyril Connelly). Ubu Roi has been reproduced by permission of the estate of the author c/o Rogers, Coleridge & White Ltd.

King Ubu

What can we say. We love Kelly. We keep inviting him back. This time, the gravy-making raconteur of the Australian condition will perform a soaring new song cycle, alongside composer James Ledger, singer Alice Keath and Seraphim Trio, with piano, violin and cello from Anna Goldsworthy, Helen Ayres and Tim Nankervis. It’s all about birds—not just their song and flight, but as symbols of hope and freedom, luck and migration, and the poetry they’ve inspired. John Keats, Emily Dickinson, Judith Wright, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Gwen Harwood and Thomas Hardy, set to new music by Kelly and his friends.

Tickets to this show have sold out  
[Join the waitlist](https://monafoma.net.au/waitlist)  

#### Presented by Mona Foma in arrangement with GWB Entertainment

Thirteen Ways to Look at Birds

Did you know that the laughing kookaburra was introduced to Tassie when Launceston was establishing a colonial zoo? The council exchanged the bird from mainland zoos for thylacine puppies. This was around the turn of the nineteenth century, when the bird was called a ‘laughing jackass’. Nowadays, the laugh of the kookaburra is a patriotic, yet alien, element of our island’s soundtrack. Part protest, part laughing circle, Fernando and his group of performers will present a series of absurd interventions into public city spaces in dialogue with the kookaburra.

__The work will move around Launceston, but here's where you're likely to catch it:__   
Friday 17: Royal Park, 9.30–10.30am  
Saturday 18: Harvest Market, Launceston Mall + Civic Square, 9.30–10.30am  
Sunday 19: Harvest Market + City Park, 11.30am–12.30pm  

#### Presented by Mona Foma and Contemporary Art Tasmania
 
#### The Kookaburra Self-Relocation Project has been assisted by Create NSW, UNSW Art + Design and the Australia Council for the Arts

Fernando do Campo

This smooth-talkin’ compost collective is the subconscious mind of the festival, with a voice that sounds suspiciously like Will Anderson. Tune in as Daddy tweets totally dank observations about compost that are one hundred per cent scientifically proven to make you hotter than all your friends.

[Follow Daddy here](https://twitter.com/daddydank2020).

Daddy Dank

Only those who haven’t transcended trash—e.g. those who bring their own crap to the festival, like a disgusting baby yogurt container—will be provided with a tiny place for it: a pathetic little bucket. Everything and everyone else will ascend a ladder of pure virtuousness and be free from trash forever. This may or may not be art.

Your radical new trash collection system

Crafts and experiences curated by Natalie Holtsbaum with a few additions by Kirsha. Radical sustainability with a side of personal transformation, please.  

__Dolly Dos__  
Get a hairdo inspired by the dolls of yore. [Book your ‘do here](https://www.eyeamhair.com/prices-bookings).  

__Wishing Well__  
Readings, crystals and healing. Have a session or stock up on wares.  

__Sabio__  
Complete makeovers and outfit re-works.  

__Fancybox__  
The world’s fanciest photobooth (which also delivers directly to you, digitally). 

__Rainbow Connection__  
Massage for the tired, worn-out, or those who just feel like a massage.  
	
__Indigo Dyeing__  
Normal dyes are toxic, horrible planet destroyers and if we are going to do the right thing, we are all going to have to start wearing tie-dyed natural indigo. Elenore has done the research and will help you magically transform your white garment into a deep green, and then blue tie-dye.  

And when we say ‘white garment’, we mean the natural fibre one you bring—not your polyester undies. They won’t take the dye and, as they are made of future ocean fibres (e.g. plastic), they are not part of our trash transcendence program (we call it Trascism). Unless you got them at a thrift store which is sort of virtuous but possibly amoral in its own right.  

__Beeswax Earplugs__  
Hand-rolled, all natural earplugs. Kirsha made us do this—it’s a massive pain in the arse to roll beeswax into earplugs. But at least these won’t end up as stupid orange shit floating in the ocean.


Agora Market

It wouldn’t be Mofo without Kirsha bringing along some of her trademark projects, all boasting a telltale mashup of sustainability, thoughtfulness and a dash of transformative psychedelia.

KIRSHA KAECHELE PROJECTS

It wouldn’t be Mofo without an organ performance, and Pavel is a virtuoso—regarded as one of the great new interpreters of the organ from the concert stages of Europe.


Pavel Kohout

A nineteen-years-in-the-making documentary about the Alfred Jarry-inspired, eighties cult-status crooner Reverend Fred Lane and a lively chronicle of the Raudelunas arts collective from which he emerged in 1970s Tuscaloosa, Alabama. 

#### Australian Premiere  
#### Directed by Skizz Cyzyk  
#### Unclassified – restricted to ages 15+ unless accompanied by a parent or adult guardian


Icepick to the Moon

When Kevin Hearn from the Barenaked Ladies buys a painting by Norval Morrisseau—the great Canadian indigenous artist Chagall once called ‘the Picasso of the North’—he’s drawn into the world of an art forgery ring. A Brian Ritchie special pick.  

#### Australian premiere

#### Directed by Jamie Kastner

#### Unclassified – restricted to ages 15+ unless accompanied by a parent or adult guardian


There Are No Fakes

The story of how Slovenian cult band Laibach (they’re here in town for the festival) became the first rock group ever to perform in the fortress state of North Korea.  

#### Directed by Ugis Olte and Morten Traavik

#### Unclassified – restricted to ages 15+ unless accompanied by a parent or adult guardian

Liberation Day

Plague-ridden survivors of a nightmarish Los Angeles earthquake tell their gory, not-for-the-faint-hearted stories on a makeshift network of discarded televisions. The directorial debut of Flying Lotus (here to unleash his 3D spectacular at the Festival Hub) and starring George Clinton, Tim Heidecker, Hannibal Burress and more. Mind the worms.  

#### Unclassified – restricted to ages 18+

#### Some parts of the film may be confronting


Kuso

A specially curated flick-fest about (and not so about) the artists and curatorial drives of this year’s Mona Foma.

#### Programmed by Viv Carroll

CINEMOFO

Two Launnie dance ensembles join forces for the first time, like, ever, for this made-for-Mofo premiere. It’s about power and control—literally, because you, the audience, get to control the dancers as they move through pools of light in the dark.

#### World Premiere
&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
#### Artistic Directors: Adam Wheeler and Caitlin Comerford
#### Producers: Ali Copley and Mary Shannon
#### Dancers: Kyall Shanks, Amber McCartney, Jenni Large, Olivia McPherson and the Stompin Ensemble
#### Lighting Designer / Production Manager: Chris Jackson
#### Composer: Anna Whitaker
#### Costume Designer: Ingrid Reynolds  
&nbsp; 
#### Stompin is supported by Launceston Airport  

Tasdance + Stompin

Xydep needs your help. He’s making a video game—Street Fighter meets historical painters from the QVMAG collection—and wants you to contribute sound effects, via instruments and whatnot, to said game. You’ll do so in a gallery environment created by artist Josh Foley, with painting, papier-mâché and sculpture that responds to works from QVMAG and Launceston itself. This is the start of something. What happens next?

#### A QVMAG exhibition with performances presented in association with Mona Foma

Xydep Xydahlia (AKA Josh Foley)

Amanda wants to tap the Mofo zeitgeist—that’s you, actually, locals and interlopers alike. She’ll set up shop in the middle of town and invite you to share with her your thoughts, fears and stories. And then, as if by alchemical process, transform these confessions into a new song and perform it live on stage as part of her other show at Mona Foma, [There Will Be No Intermission](/program/amanda-palmer).

Amanda Palmer will also perform at [My Favourite Things](/program/my-favourite-things).

#### World premiere and Australian exclusive

Amanda Palmer

A tangle of limbs, muscle and tissue curl and stretch, as if without bones and controlled by one nervous system.  

#### Image: _A to B via C_ (video still), 2015, Alexandra Bachzetsis

A to B via C

Alexandra Bachzetsis

Australian athletics meets the musicals of yesteryear and Leni Riefenstahl’s Nazi propaganda films.

#### Image: _Gymnasium_ (video still), 2010, Tarryn Gill and Pilar Mata Dupont  
#### Courtesy of the artist

Gymnasium

Tarryn Gill + Pilar Mata Dupont

Imaginary game of art vs sport, as the Sydney Chamber Choir warm up at the home of the Sydney Harlequins rugby team.

#### Image: _Harlequins vs Visitors_ (video still), 2012, Jess Olivieri and Hayley Forward with the Parachutes for Ladies  
#### Courtesy of the artist  


Harlequins vs Visitors

Jess Olivieri + Hayley Forward with the Parachutes for Ladies

A glistening, spray-tanned parade of young men desperately trying to augment their bodies for competition and display. It’s part of the artist’s *Resistance* series, which turns a documentary eye on cultures that seek to transform the body and, in doing so, resist mortality.  

#### Image: _Bodybuilding_ (video still), 2013, Ali Kazma  
#### Courtesy of the artist, Analix Forever and the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts

Bodybuilding

Ali Kazma

A pair of cherubic ice skaters intone political tracts about society’s collective fantasy of the innocent child.

#### Image: _Kiss and Cry_ (video still), 2015, Liz Magic Laser  
#### Courtesy of the artist, Various Small Fires, Los Angeles and Wilfried Lentz, Rotterdam


Kiss and Cry

Liz Magic Laser

Armoured warriors—part god, part beast—clash in ritualistic combat, inspired by a spiritual vision the artist had at a staff Christmas party.

#### Image: _Beast Trinity_ (video still), 2019, Katy B Plummer  
#### Courtesy of the artist

Beast Trinity

Katy B Plummer

Western Sydney footy fans doing what footy fans were born to do.

#### Image: _Wonderland_ (video still), 2014, Khaled Sabsabi  
#### Courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery Brisbane


Wonderland

Khaled Sabsabi

Tony slogs it out on the tennis court in a gruelling, eight-hour match against himself.

#### Image: _C’mon_ (video still), 2006, Tony Schwensen  
#### Courtesy of the artist

C'mon

Tony Schwensen

A gang of young men and a squad of police officers (sworn enemies, as the story often goes) team up to create a freerunning performance at an abandoned factory and stadium in Radom, Poland—an historic site of class war and police brutality.

#### Image: _Run Free_ (video still), 2013, Dominik Jałowiński and Piotr Wysocki
#### Courtesy of the artist

Run Free

Dominik Jałowiński + Piotr Wysocki

Fight! Fight! Fight! And then interrogate your ideas of female and queer aggression, violence and competition. Hissy Fit is Jade Muratore, EO Gill and Nat Randall, with sound by James Brown.

P.S. This artwork is at the Festival Hub. But it’s still totally part of The Centre.

#### Image: *Heat* (video still), 2014, Hissy Fit
#### Courtesy the artist


__Wednesday 15 + Thursday 16 January, 9am–5pm  
Saturday 18 + Sunday 19 January, 2–8pm__  
Academy Gallery, Festival Hub  
Free, except for Saturday and Sunday when you’ll need a festival ticket  

Heat

Hissy Fit

A suburban maze of recreation, sweat and the pong of after-school-sport nostalgia, infiltrated by choreographic artworks about the community and the individual (team players and ball hogs, if you will) and the tensions between them—on the fringe of the city, a short walk from the Festival Hub.
 
Longnecks and half-time snacks available at the kiosk.  

*Curated by Emma Pike and Pippa Mott*  

#### Image: _Beast Trinity_ (video still), 2019, Katy B Plummer  
#### Courtesy of the artist


The Centre

Laibach

Chai

The Native Cats

Evan Carydakis

Medhanit Barratt

Friday nights, industrial-pop-punk-jazz attitude, and joyful collaboration: these are a few of our—sorry, we’ll stop there. What we really want to say is: join us for a coming-together of extra special festival artists under one roof, all riffing on the Julie Andrews’ banger ‘My Favourite Things’. Expect unexpectedness; BYO cream-coloured pony.

My Favourite Things

The LA beat-maker and party shaman returns with an electrified, psychedelic odyssey of jazz-funk, hip-hop, and intergalactic eye candy. 3D specs at the ready, please.  

On the night: collect your free 3D glasses from our merch stand near the Northern Stage. Available from 5pm.

Flying Lotus 3D

Ann performs stark and bluesy songs of rage and hope, tackling taboos and her personal history. Backed by simple percussion and trombone, she transforms the Maloya tradition: the music of the sugarcane fields worked by slaves on Réunion Island, a former French colony off the east African coast.

#### Supported by the Indian Ocean Music Market (IOMMa). The IOMMA regional cooperation program is cofinanced by the European Union

Ann O’aro

Euro-improv: lush, hypnotic, and influenced by contemporary classical and experimental music stylings. Maybe droning.

#### Supported by Music Norway, the Norwegian Jazz Forum and the Italian Cultural Institute of Melbourne

Euro-Antipodean quartet of improvisors, popping up in various configurations around the joint. No grand design.

o3 will also perform at [Morning Meditations](/program/morning-meditations).

#### Supported by Music Norway, the Norwegian Jazz Forum and the Italian Cultural Institute of Melbourne

o3 + Aviva Endean

Your night begins at the Launceston Workers Club: plunge through the portal and into an industrial wonderland where you’ll celebrate high art and low, diversity and collaboration, and big dreams on low budgets. What a way to make a livin’.   

‘If you talk bad about country music, it’s like saying bad things about my momma. Them’s fightin’ words.’  
—Dolly Parton  

Our rhinestoned mascot for this eight-hour, nocturnal romp through the serious and the hilarious will be the most iconic of icons Dolly Parton, whose working-class, sex-positive twang was giving lip before intersectional feminism was even a twinkle in the media’s eye.  

For those who don’t know: the Workers Club is Launceston’s cosy-as-hell hideout where everyone who’s no-one goes for knock-offs and a great big dose of Launnie bonhomie. Expect salt-of-the-earth bar staff and salt and vinegar chips. Think sweethearts, warm nights, cold beers, hot pashes and hungover hickeys. Bring your grandma for a shandy.  

‘It’s a good thing I was born a girl, otherwise I’d be a drag queen.’  
—Dolly Parton  

Turn up early for our big opener at 10pm sharp: a wild and joyous journey into the Dollyverse with cabaret powerhouses, local divas, big-ass brass and the Faux Mo queens. High camp and country meets Kath and Kim. Working nine to five meets werking hard for that bread. Working girls, working women, working moms and dads. Some of Tasmania’s most iconic singers will plump and prep you for the night ahead before booting you onto the dancefloor. From there, our international star DJs (from Uganda to Lisbon, Jamaica to USA) will make you werk, werk, werk: Kampire, fresh from the Nyege Nyege Festival on the banks of the Nile; DJ Marfox, the godfather of the Angolan-Portugese sound that has made the Príncipe label famous; Tygapaw, sonic destroyer of mainstream queerness; and more.  

‘It takes a lot of money to look this cheap.’  
—Dolly Parton  

Sophistication is so passé. Wear denim, wear lace, wear pearls and pastels. Wear cheap minis, scrunchies, diamanté-studded uggs and too much eyeliner. We want razzle and we want clamour. We want talking back, asking too much and being hard to please.  

‘My weaknesses have always been food and men, in that order.’  
—Dolly Parton  

By 4am, you’ll need breakfast. And we’re here to serve: croissants and hot coffee from Launceston institution Bread and Butter. You’re worth it.  

Stamina is required but we believe in you. You’re special. Dolly’s special. We’re all special.  

A manifesto from the Faux Mo team 

How to work from 9 to 5

Kampire joins us fresh from performing a knock-out, talk-of-the-internet set at the Nyege Nyege Festival, an East African electronic music party on the banks of the Nile. And now to Launceston, with Afro-house, St Lucian soca, Congolese soukous, gqom and more.

When she’s not exploding the electronic music scene, she’s collaborating with other artists on Salooni, a pop-up hair salon and art installation, and Pussy Party, a safe space for women and other minorities in Uganda.

Kampire

Born and raised in Mandeville Jamaica, performer and producer Tygapaw is on a mission to destroy the mainstream white narrative of queerness via techno, relentless club rhythms, and intimate vocal samples. Tygapaw also runs Fake Accent, a record label (go listen to her searing EP, *Handle With Care*) and underground party in New York celebrating queer and trans artists of colour.

Tygapaw

Prepare your brain, gird your loins: DJ Marfox is the godfather of Lisbon’s ghetto sound and a master of twisted, soulful and African-influenced dance music. (He’s basically the sonic manifestation of *batida*, the Portugese word for your thumping, adrenalin-drenched heart after a car crash.) Marfox is the third artist to grace us from Príncipe record label (after Nídia and DJ Niggafox) and he would’ve come sooner but he was busy cutting his high-art chops making music for the Venice Biennale’s German Pavilion.


DJ Marfox

Eartheater’s the pseudonym of multi-instrumentalist, composer and vocalist Alexandra Drewchin, and she’s here to spit sacred music from the future and bass-heavy siren pop. Think classical compositions on harp and piano blended with anthemic electronica and club rhythms that pull you into the deep.

Eartheater

Take us by the hand as we unveil a Dolly Parton stage show extravaganza at 10pm sharp. It’s a wild, feminist stampede through the Dollyverse: part deconstructed musical spectacular, part joyous community ritual of rhinestones, feelings and the following artists:

__Simone Page Jones__ – Dolly-lover, diva, cabaret powerhouse, and one half of country music duo Miles and Simone. She’ll command the bingo, boss the brass bands and make sure the dance moms have their denim scrunchies tight.

__Medhanit__ – Local diva returns to Faux Mo after a club-stopping performance with Nakhane at our last late-night party.

__Beatrix Bae Bouwman__ – Songwriter-in-hiding from the foothills of Mount Wellington and currently working on her second album, *River for a Crown*.

__Claire Anne Taylor__ – Born in a barn in the Tarkine rainforest, CAT is the west coast’s answer to Janis Joplin.

__Nicole Simms-Farrow__ – Tasmanian musical theatre star here to take on Dolly one note at a time.

__The Faux Mo Queens__ – Ana Thema, Kat Daddi, Misty Del Ray, Pussay Poppins and Rosa Rita are back to slay by popular demand. You want cheap, we’ll show you cheap.

Simone Page Jones with Medhanit, Beatrix Bae Bouwman, Claire Anne Taylor, Nicole Farrow, Ana Thema, Kat Daddi, Misty Del Ray, Pussay Poppins + Rosa Rita 

Take Me to the Dollyverse

Marvel at a DIY wonderland built by artist, sculptor and metal-crafter Aedan Howlett. Then watch punk bands destroy it.

Aedan Howlett

Alien, angel and witch back from Berlin to do your horoscopes and bathe in your blood. Benji is also a performance artist, fashion designer and caravan park manager from Seven Mile Beach. She knows the spells and she will cast them.


Benji Chandler

Renegade New York video art—David calls it ‘resemblagé’—from the underbelly of American pop culture. When not covering himself in goo, David gets papped with celebs as his alter ego Alex von Furstenburg: VIP party crasher and conceptual artwork.

David Henry Nobody Jr

Takiaya Reed and Sylvie Nehill unleash heavy, rattling music that smashes colonialism and destroys white supremacy. Drums, guitar, sax and doom. Vital politics, great merch.

Divide and Dissolve

Curious movers, shakers and totem tennis troupers. Holly and Gabi use their bodies to interpret the quagmire of their shared subconscious while keeping balls in the air.

Holly Durant + Gabi Barton

An Afghan wedding singer / local party starter and his Casio keyboard. Khaled is there for you when the party takes off and defies you not to dance.

Khaled Zerro

Enter the warped brain of this Yogyakarta-based genius. Therein you’ll find video art wrought from post-internet creation myths and hyperreal, futuristic dreamworlds in which the artist communes with ghosts, mystics and cockroaches.


Natasha Tontey

A fierce dancer, choreographer and physical philosopher channels her feminist politics into a collaboration with a diverse group of dancers from Launceston.

PAEA LEACH AND THE DOLLYVERSE DANCERS

A super special performance from the only person to have performed at more Mofos than Brian Ritchie. Big beard. Big beats. Bleep bleep.

Robin Fox 

New wave hip-hopper making massive strides in the underground music scene. Born in Nigeria, raised in New Zealand, and here to deliver a unique combo of trap, house, club culture, and pop-inspired hooks with fresh cuts from her forthcoming, debut EP.

Sophiegrophy

Local brass heroes unite. It’ll be loud, it’ll be moving, it’ll subvert and celebrate our lady and saviour, Dolly Parton. Led by Stephen McEntee of Hobart’s Afro-beat / Indo-funk orchestra, Baba Bruja. 


Stephen McEntee with some Big-Ass Launceston Brass

To introduce the new Tasdance Ensemble to Launceston, dancers Kyall Shanks, Amber McCartney, Jenni Large, Gabe Comerford and Olivia McPherson will go head to head with synthesisers, hang off some fire escapes and infiltrate the party with a riot of movement.

Tasdance

‘It takes a lot of money to look this cheap.’  
—Dolly Parton  

Go all the way, from dusk until dawn, as we take our chameleon club on an all-night odyssey of love and forgiveness. We want you from beginning to end.  

Faux Mo

Nearly fifty artists, boundary-pushing abstract art, and a whole lot of good stuff on the walls.

#### Featuring Jake Walker, Tineke Porck, Billy Gruner, Paul Moncrieff, Suzie Idiens, Sarah Keighery, Lev Khesin, Carolyn Wigston, Anya Pesce, Louise Blyton, Diane Scott, Stephen Wickham, Aaron Martin, Deb Covell, Lisa Sharp, Eloise Kirk, Steven Carson, Dan Rocha, Anne Mestitz, Terri Brooks, Pia Løye, Nicola Staeglich, Ivan De Menis, Ryllton Viney, Lisa Patroni, Michael Muruste, Paul Snell, Noah Spivak, Patrizia Biondi, Molly Thomson, Marlene Sarroff, Ian Wells, Monique Lacey, Paul Bishop, Ryan Sarah Murphy, Magda Cebokli, Michelangelo Russo, Jennifer Jabu, Pim Piët, Susan Andrews, Kevin Lund, David Marsden, Jamin Kluss, Ilkka Parni, Jeff Conefry, Brent Hallard and Louise Gresswell 

Image_Object (The Visual and the Physical)

A nineteen-years-in-the-making documentary about the Alfred Jarry-inspired, eighties cult-status crooner Reverend Fred Lane and a lively chronicle of the Raudelunas arts collective from which he emerged in 1970s Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

### [Book tickets via the Star →](https://www.startheatre.com.au/movie/icepick-to-the-moon)  

#### Australian Premiere  
#### Directed by Skizz Cyzyk  
#### Unclassified – Restricted Age 15+ unless accompanied by a parent or adult guardian


Plague-ridden survivors of a nightmarish Los Angeles earthquake tell their gory, not-for-the-faint-hearted stories on a makeshift network of discarded televisions. The directorial debut of Flying Lotus (here to unleash his 3D spectacular at the Festival Hub) and starring George Clinton, Tim Heidecker, Hannibal Burress and more. Mind the worms.  

### [Book tickets via the Star →](https://www.startheatre.com.au/movie/kuso)  

#### Unclassified – Restricted Age 18+

#### Some parts of the film may be confronting


The story of how Slovenian cult band Laibach (they’re here in town for the festival) became the first rock group ever to perform in the fortress state of North Korea.  

### [Book tickets via the Star →](https://www.startheatre.com.au/movie/liberation-day)  

#### Directed by Ugis Olte and Morten Traavik

#### Unclassified – Restricted Age 15+ unless accompanied by a parent or adult guardian

When Kevin Hearn from the Barenaked Ladies buys a painting by Norval Morrisseau—the great Canadian indigenous artist Chagall once called ‘the Picasso of the North’—he’s drawn into the world of an art forgery ring. A Brian Ritchie special pick.  

### [Book Tickets via The Star →](https://www.startheatre.com.au/movie/there-are-no-fakes)  

#### Australian premiere

#### Directed by Jamie Kastner

#### Unclassified – Restricted Age 15+ unless accompanied by a parent or adult guardian


DIY electro-acoustic homemade instruments hooked up to mics and amps, and then sonically transformed in real time by the composer.

#### Supported by the Goethe Institute

Annette Krebs

Ritchie’s Mofo-in-chief—our festival curator and, lucky for you, a shakuhachi rock star.

Brian Ritchie

If there’s a better instrument to play in a dell than the shakuhachi, it’s yet to be discovered. Tune in as Anne brings the instrument of the itinerant monk into the twenty-first century.

Anne Norman

Begin your Tuesday with a solo sax performance in the Gorge, inspired by the influence that Albert Ayler—jazz trailblazer, technical sophisticate—had on the work (and life) of John Coltrane. Bring your sunnies. 


Be soothed by clarinet and homemade leather horn stylings featuring improv and originals moulded by a desire to draw on (and then tamper with) the last thousand years of music.

Karlin Love

Myles and Julius improv-converse with guitar and electronics to create a mid-morning mirage of shimmering, sun-baked sounds inspired by the climate crisis. Not as heavy as it sounds.

Myles Mumford + Julius Schwing

Portative organ—aka a much-smaller-than-usual pipe organ—to mesmerise you with innovative and veering original compositions.

James Rushford

A trailblazing sound artist and improvisational dancer walk into a bar...

Akio Suzuki + Hiromi Miyakita

Not actual meditation, but near enough. Acoustic (as in: unplugged at the Gorge) and approachable (as in: you’ve just had your breakfast) sets by festival artists in the secluded, mossy surrounds of the Fairy Dell. Perfect ways to start your festival days.

Morning Meditations

A mashup of vintage synth and whale song, inspired by the story of Greenpeace expeditioners using the Serge modular synthesiser to communicate with humpback whales.

James will also perform at [Morning Meditations](/program/morning-meditations).

#### World Premiere

#### Supported by the APRA AMCOS Art Music Fund

In a world where fast fashion is failing our future, how could we transform the daily impact of our bodies to be of use to the planet? The answer could lie in our sweat or even our dead skin and dander according to two designers: Alice Potts from Royal College of the Arts (London) and Tarryn Handcock from RMIT (Melbourne).

#### Presented by Design Tasmania in association with Mona Foma

Body Future

Jump in a boat and plunge into an imagined, psychedelic dream world. MESS and Soma Lumia have reimagined the Dark Ride: local landmark Penny Royal’s waterborne adventure through the darkest, kookiest recesses of convict Tasmania—transformed by artists with laser beams, hypnotic video art, lights galore and a specially commissioned, out-of-this-world synth-soundtrack. It’s inspired by stories of the afterlife in Greek mythology, where the dead would drink from the river Lethe—which flowed through the cave of Hypnos, the god of sleep—to forget their past lives and thus find paradise.

#### World Premiere
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#### MESS:
#### Robin Fox
#### Katerina Stathis
#### Mads Davey
#### Rachael Kim
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#### Soma Lumia:
#### Darryl Rogers
#### Troy Merritt
#### Ashley Bird
#### Jessica Dorloff
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#### Presented in partnership with Penny Royal Adventures

MESS + Soma Lumia

Palmer’s the patron saint of all things Mofo. Pianist, performer, punk cabaret star. Now she’s returning to our shores with her first album in ages: a grand manifesto of survival and empathy, and an extended audience with the artist and her piano.

Amanda Palmer will also perform at [My Favourite Things](/program/my-favourite-things). And be sure to check out Palmer’s [Confessional](/program/amanda-palmer-confessional) in the Launceston CBD.

#### Warning: this performance contains adult themes and probably a bit of swearing

Dutcher and band perform rousing, contemporary arias and pop-operatic ballads in Wolastoq, the nearly extinct tongue of Dutcher’s First Nation ancestors (only 100 speakers remain).

Jeremy Dutcher

A masked outlaw cowboy crooner is just what the world needs right now. That’s Orville. He’s here with his debut album of heartbreak and revenge, called *Pony*. Yee—and we cannot stress this enough—haw.

Orville Peck

Slovenia’s industrial pop pioneers and political provocateurs were the first ‘outsider’ rock band to be invited into North Korea and perform in Pyongyang. Now they’re coming to Launceston to take on *The Sound of Music*—and a few of their favourite things (sorry, sorry) from their back catalogue, reaching back to 1980—with experimental flair and boundary-smashing gusto.

Laibach will also perform at [My Favourite Things](/program/my-favourite-things). They’ll then storm the Annexe Theatre all Sunday to unleash a couple of up-close-and-personal experimental performances, and deliver a talk on the revolutionary history of the band.

Field recordings, electronics, microphones, wind and keyboard instruments, percussion and voice. Ora Clementi is composer-performer James Rushford and sound artist crys cole (each also performing separately at the festival).

Ora Clementi

Get your cinema-loving ass along to Launceston’s all-kinds-of-stunning art-deco Star Theatre, where we’re putting on a specially curated flick-fest about (and not so about) the artists and curatorial drives of this year’s Mona Foma. Also, there will be choc tops.

#### Programmed by Viv Carroll
 
#### Presented in partnership with the Star Theatre


Mofo at the Star

Dadaist choristry in three parts, featuring darkness (actual darkness), clocks (lots of clocks), body percussion, paper bags, processions, Lorca, and eyeballs.

#### Presented in partnership with Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra


TSOCextreme

William is a didgeridoo master, widely recognised as one of Australia’s greatest didgeridoo players and composers. Veronique is classically trained but totally off the rails on electric violin. And Aunty Delmae fuses Aboriginal spirituality with operatic singing and story (and also happens to be Will’s mum).

William Barton + Veronique Serret + Aunty Delmae Barton

Risk-taking ephemeral improv from an eclectic crew of artists.

Philomath

Oren’s solo guitar sets feature otherworldly, swirling and overtone-drenched harmonics influenced by Indian raga, 70s fusion / free jazz, and the work of electro-acoustic composers such as Alvin Lucier.

Oren Ambarchi

The crew at Interweave are going to strap a camera to Patche the companion pooch and set him loose at the Festival Hub. Go to the Interweave Arts Studio to watch the livestream of his adventures, and to check out Interweave’s other festival projects: Jay’s Trail and Re-Embody.

Interweave Arts

Two drummers. Two dancers. Two hours. Two days.

Double Double

Sound art slashie—composer / improviser / cassette memory-maker—exploring spontaneous music making.

#### Supported by the Australian Government through the Australia-Japan Foundation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Aki Onda

A hazy, electro-acoustic dream of organ, guitars, electronics, muttered vocals, love letters, and field recordings.

Oren Ambarchi + crys cole

Ancient Persian music and Farsi poetry combined with experimental rumblings and frenzied improvisation.

ZÖJ

Metal in the afternoon. Why not? 

We’ll tell you why not. Zeolite has spent years honing its particular blend of death, groove and tech metal: it’s aggressively heavy, it’s anti-establishment, it’s metal with intent—‘soaked in harrowing political and social commentary’, says the band.

Zeolite

Robbie’s invented a robotic drum machine, inspired by the modernist abstraction of twentieth-century composition. ‘Consider it a refreshing antidote to those highfalutin digital drum machines of the here and now,’ says Brian Ritchie. See the machine perform solo on stage, or as a durational installation in a gallery space.


Robbie Avenaim

Saltwater rock, reggae and garage grunge in five languages, from the top end—Maningrida, specifically, in Arnhem Land. A Brian Ritchie special pick, and an all-women band from a community where music has traditionally been the domain of men.

Ripple Effect

Indescribable (but here we go) post-punk minimalism mashed together with existential lyrics and life-or-death femininity, from a legal transcription typist and a library technician. Alluringly bleak, surprisingly danceable.

The Native Cats will also perform at [My Favourite Things](/program/my-favourite-things).

Julia and Emile will improvise on the Petit Cristal Baschet—a glass and metal musical contraption of mid-century French design that makes eerie, almost electronic sounds, even though it’s totally acoustic. Such instruments have also been found to be therapeutic for people with autism.

Julia Drouhin + Emile Boudghene

Electronic pop vocal ensemble of humans and an artificial intelligence, called Spawn, of Herndon’s own design.

#### Supported by the US Consulate

Holly Herndon

Improvisational dance, in collaboration with other festival artists. Hiromi’s performance explores the idea of ‘dance as stillness’, and the motion of a human body when considered an object rather than a living being.

Hiromi will also perform at [Morning Meditations](/program/morning-meditations) with Akio Suzuki.

#### Supported by the Australian Government through the Australia-Japan Foundation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Hiromi Miyakita

A joyous riot of pop, punk and rock. Chai will explode your cute, totally archaic notions of Japanese girl power.

Chai will also perform at [My Favourite Things](/program/my-favourite-things).

It’s been said that Tim creates electronic music fit for ‘the rain-soaked alley between a church and a nightclub’. Now he’s turning his attention to the ancient music of the Japanese royal court, in collaboration with Japanese *gagaku* musicians. 

#### Supported by the Australian Government through the Australia-Japan Foundation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Tim Hecker + Konoyo Ensemble

Want more info about what's happening at the Festival Hub and around Launceston during the Mona Foma? Download the ground guide below.

### [Ground Guide→](https://mofo2020.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/Mofo2020+Program/PDFs/mofo2020-groundguide-web.pdf)

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