Winter Light Festival
2022 is the second year of the Winter Light Festival. Unlike Dark MOFO, which positions itself to celebrate shortened days of fear and shadow, Winter Light is a festival of hope and celebration.
Funded principally by the Salamanca Arts centre with contributions from the Hobart City council, the Australian Government Rise Fund, and Festivals Australia, Winter Light is a celebration of inclusion, youth and cultural diversity which includes art installations, street performers, music, dance, burlesque, circus, and new works from emerging voices.
Festivals Australia supported the centrepiece of the event, Utopia Now. More than a dozen mentors worked with geographically and culturally diverse groups of young people to enable them to present their vision of a sustainable future that allows us all to flourish and live in harmony.
Festival Director, Lucien Simon, believes in promoting the voice of youth and the role they will take in shaping a future which, at times, may look bleak. Using art to shape a vision of the future creates a sense of agency and hope whilst also providing creative opportunities for those involved. Simon is also a proponent of new works from emerging artists.
This is perhaps best demonstrated through the aleatory multimedia work, Arcana.
During the course of the evening, five accomplished musicians, each with a few tricks up their sleeves, respond to the whims of fate in reply to audience participation and the directives of tarot cards. Facilitating this was Jem Nicholas. Nicholas conducted the ballot, offer the tarot, offered spoken interpretations, and responded to the unfolding soundscape in movement and voice, as they felt drawn.
The “hangman” card elicited a sinuous dance with a length of rope. The “devil” inspired maniacal laughter and the “empress” a dance of regal beauty. Nicholas was not the only one to respond physically. At one point, Michael Fortescue, well known for his long white beard, wandered into the crowd with a lantern in reaction to the appearance of the “hermit” card.
Fortescue, on double bass, was a most engaging performer who added body percussion and glossolalia to his exploration of all the sonic qualities of his instrument. Randal Muir dragged chains across the exposed string of his grand piano. Tom Robb created ethereal and compelling rhythms on percussion, the latter effect particularly noted in in response to the “chariot” card. The ensemble was completed by violin and cello played by Alethea Coombe and Lachlan Johnson, respectively.
Audience engagement was high. It was a natural response of concert goers to listen actively to the way in which the ensemble chose to interpret the tarot cards. Some movements took on the flavour of jazz, others were resonant of classical themes, but many were an unsettling combination of rhythms and timbres.
Arcana is part of a much larger vision.
On the opening night of Winter Light, crowds gathered in Salamanca Square, braving light rain, to enjoy a full programme of free events curated by Sharifah Emalia Al-Gadrie. Lanterns were unveiled in the SAC courtyard. For those inspired by the festive glow under a lowering purple sky, lantern making classes continue from August 23rd. Svetlana Bunic guided the crowd through the arts precinct on piano accordion. The evening continued with performances by Columbian duo, Kattleya, Salsita Kids (a Columbian dance group), MMT (East African Hip-hop) and Rhythmz Bollwood. With rain falling, the final acts for the evening, Miettes Son Del Sur and Bon Odori were relocated indoors.
The festival still has time to run before winter is truly behind us. Still to come and highly recommended are:
Random Acts of Weirdness (where the strange and beautiful meet),
Finucane & Smith’s Travelling Dance Hall! (burlesque)
Don’t Mess with the Dummies (circus) and The Ted Vining Trio (jazz).
Warmth, light and hope are just around the corner!
Anne Blythe-Cooper
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