Sydney Festival: Talks & exhibitions

The Scope

The Scope is a talk vortex where art and ideas connect. By connecting festival themes and pitting artists, academics, leaders and thinkers against each other armed with stories of Sydney's past and future and reflections on its present, the Scope becomes a whirling dervish of animated and provocative discussion, part think-tank, lecture, theatre.

But the Scope is also a vision in division, falling into four dynamic categories:

1 The 5th Pacific Thought Symposium: Bringing Forth the Ancestors
Between performances of Tempest: Without a Body, MAU artistic director Lemi Pnifasio will convene an esteemed panel of visionaries and cultural philosophers to provoke and propose new ways to grapple with Pacific thought by seeking common ground with Sydney's indigenous and Pacific communities.

2 Keynote 2010: Crisis, Catharsis, Renewal
Five remarkable speakers, both local and international, share the stage to speak from the heart about their hopes and dreams (and fears) for the year ahead.

3 Are We Happy Yet?
Led by Dr Geoff Gallop, this blend of performance and music promises to be a rich discussion on the nature of elation and what constitutes happiness in today's day and age, with perspectives from the worlds of art, psychology and spirituality.

4 Microscope: Festival Artists in Conversation with Caroline Baum
Renowned journo and broadcaster Baum converses with festival artists. All event are free.
Hamlet: Thomas Ostermeier & Lars Eidinger, Sun 10 Jan (post-show, Sydney Theatre)
The Manganiyar Seduction: Roysten Abel, Tue 12 Jan (post-show, Seymour Centre)
Lynette Wallworth, Sun 17 Jan (CarriageWorks, 1pm)
Six Characters in Search of an Author: Ben Power, Sat 23 Jan (post-2pm show)
Giselle: Micheal Keegan-Dolan, Sun 24 Jan (post-show, CarriageWorks)
Ruhe: Guy Coolen, Tue 26 Jan (pre-7.30pm show, Quadrangle, University of Sydney)

Circa 1979: Signal to Noise

Signal to Noise carries a grand quest: to uncover the dirty gems of Sydney's underground music scene of the late 1970s and early 80s via a series of talks,  exhibitions and creatively sweaty performances exploring the vainglorious post-punk music era of our Siren City.

John Cale Keynote & Opening Night Party
Cale, former lynchpin of the Velvet Underground, presents a keynote address exploring New York avant garde, proto-punk and his work with Andy Warhol... and how it influenced the noise maelstroms from parish halls, abandoned warehouses and run-down apartments throughout Sydney in the era.
York Theatre, Seymour Centre, Fri 15 Jan

John Cale Performance
Singer, songwriter, producer and visual artist John Cale plays works from his astounding back catalogue of music, spanning his years with Lou Reed in the Velvet Underground right through to his more recent work alongside LCD Soundsystem and Danger Mouse.
Enmore Theatre, Sat 16 Jan

Signal to Noise Sessions
A day of free talks exploring Sydney's experimentation in music, film and video through the eyes and ears of panellists Tom Ellard (Severed Heads), Andrew Penhallow (Volition Records), Stephen Mallinder (Cabaret Voltaire) and Roger Grierson (Thought Criminals).
Seymour Centre, Sat 16 Jan

Signal to Noise at the Sound Lounge
An exhibition of fanzines, photography, album artwork and previously unreleased music and video archives that recreates and revives the Sydney Underground scene, 1979-85.
The Sound Lounge, Seymour Centre, 16-24 Jan

Signal to Noise Concert
Boasting sets from the Reels (their 'Quasimodo's Dream' was voted by APRA as one of the ten greatest Aussie songs of all time) and Severed Heads (pioneers of experimental music and multi-media gigging) and DJ sets from Stephen Mallinder and Mark Murphy.
Becks Festival Bar

Exhibitions

Bear Witness: The Only Good NDN (Indian)
Sydney Festival 2010 is full of firsts and one of the finest is their recruitment of Ottawa-based multi-media artist, DJ and film editor Bear Witness as the first artist in the Festival's newly created Urban Indigenous Artist Exchange Programme.

Bear is internationally famous for his explorations of aboriginal people in North America. Here in Sydney he will live at the Parramatta Artists Studios and create a new video work on conjunction with the local Darug community in a visual art exhibition.

Edge of Elsewhere
A key project of the Sydney Festival program for the next three years, Edge of Elsewhere makes its grand debut in 2010, having been developed in partnership with various Sydney communities and artists Wang Jianwei, Shigeyuki Kihara, Newell Harry. Edge of Elsewhere will appear as a major exhibition across both Campbelltown Arts Centre and Gallery 4A, a 200-page book, and a series of public programmes, forums and artist talks. "There are two million people living in Western Sydney and this important project collaboratively examines some of the questions that shape us as individuals and communities in a rapidly changing environment," says festival director Lindy Hume.

Lynette Wallworth
Renowned Sydney video installation artist Lynette Wallworth has a real treat in store for Sydney Festival 2010, with her never-before-seen-together trilogy that is the very essence of immersive intensity for every Sydneysider who views it at CarriageWorks.

Invisible by Night is an interactive video installation that presents a life-sized woman whose eternal pacing can be interrupted by the viewer.

Its sequel Evolution of Fearlessness depicts 11 Australian women hailing from lands as far-flung as Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq and El Salvador who have survived wars and other extreme acts of violence.

The third in the trilogy is Duality of Night, another immersive installation that beckons the viewer to go on a singular journey where they will encounter another being whose surprising appearance will unveil the duality at the heart of Wallworth's epic work.

Take Your Time: Olafur Eliasson
Proud is the city that hosts the works of an artist as influential and widely acclaimed as Olafur Eliasson. The Icelandic icon's work spans light-filled environments, walk-in kaleidoscopes and unique engagement works. Eliasson's art stands apart for its ability to offer an alluring space that harnesses optical cognition and meteorological elements while examining the collision of nature and science, organics and artifice.
Museum of Contemporary Art

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