'Peaches Christ Superstar' Leads Jaw-dropping 2017 Mofo Program

Celebrated annual arts and music event Mofo — short for Mona Foma, itself short for the Museum Of Old & New Art Festival Of Music & Art — returns in January 2017, with curator Brian Ritchie today revealing a jaw-dropping array of artists and attractions including the Australian-premiere performance of Peaches Christ Superstar.

Peaches Christ Superstar, in case you're unaware, is the widely lauded one-woman interpretation of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's iconic rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, as performed by acclaimed Canadian artist Peaches. While that alone would be worth making the trip for, Ritchie and the team at Mofo have gathered more than 200 artists from a dozen countries — from Azerbaijan, France and Germany to Korea, Niger and beyond — to fill out the utterly stacked program over the event.

"Mofo again challenges artists to collaborate and extend their practice, by using experimental instruments and techniques, or extending their skills in multi-disciplinary ways," Ritchie said in a statement. "Many of our artists this year are presented in 'artist-in-residence' mode, reacting spontaneously and multifariously to the challenge and potential of the site.

"Artists and punters alike can interact and create within the context of several of our art, science and music installations. We're looking forward to some weird and wonderful results."

Contributing to those results for the festivities are supergroup-of-sorts tetema — a collaboration between experimental composer Anthony Pateras and Faith No More frontman/general legend Mike Patton — as well as Puscifer (the long-lived side project of Tool main man Maynard James Keenan), Indigenous singer-songwriter and all-round Aussie icon Kev Carmody, mash-up luminary DJ Z-Trip, 'electro-spiritualist' Mos Sumney, the enigmatic Rainbow Chan, ambient electronic composer Pantha Du Prince and more.

Additionally, Mofo 2017 will see Aussie rockers Regurgitator reinterpret Velvet Underground & Nico's debut LP with assistance from Seja and Mindy Meng Wang, among other cool collaborations, while Oz artist Guy Ben-Ary will be showcasing his "wet analogue synthesizer", cellF, Julius Schwing and Miles Mumford turn Aussie water tanks into interactive sound devices, and the museum's upcoming major exhibition, On The Origin Of Art (5 November to 17 April 2017), will be running throughout Mona.

On The Origin Of Art involves four world-class scientists and evolutionary theorists — Brian Boyd, Mark Changizi, Geoffrey Miller and Steven Pinker — and their efforts to "explore the universal human drivers behind why we make art". The exhibition involves 234 objects from 35 countries, multiple cultures and thousands of years. Other exhibitions on display during the event will include Safe, "a high-visibility intervention in Kelly's Garden spurred on by notions of cultural difference and safety in times of terror", created by Aussie artist Cigdem Aydemir, as well as Derek Kreckler's Accident & Process, an exploration of the relationship between culture and the environment.

That's all in addition to further curiosities such as late-night art-party Faux Mo, the family-friendly Little Fomo experience, the Mona Market — aka MoMa — as well as The Source Electric Vinyl Sessions and more. 

"Mona Foma 2017 is an event that defies normal superlatives," state Premier and Minister for Tourism, Hospitality & Events Will Hodgman said in a statement. "Quite simply it transforms the city and its surrounds into a somewhat surreal stage for an amazing array of homegrown and international artists. Now in its ninth year, the festival is a ‘must-do’ on the summer events calendar. The Tasmanian Government has been there from the start and is delighted to continue its support in 2017."

Mofo returns to Mona (and Hobart) from 18-22 January.

Tickets will go on sale from Monday 17 October, via the museum.

For more information or to properly wrap your head around the scope of next year's program, head to the festival's website.