“A festival like Melbourne Festival should not just present work,” notes Josephine Ridge when flicking through the 2014 program over a coffee in Federation Square. Ridge, who succeeded Brett Sheehy, is currently mid-way through her three-year appointment as Creative Director of Melbourne Festival. “I think it’s really important that we contribute to the potential and the possibilities that local artists have. I think it’s fantastic if we can contextualise their work in an international context, and to be able to offer the opportunity for local artists to work with international artists.”
It’s this ideology of international collaboration that’s thoroughly enforced through the commissioned works found within Ridge’s 2014 program – most notably within Complexity of Belonging, which sees German writer, director and illustrious theatrical voice Falk Richter (director-in-residence at Schaubühne Berlin – An Enemy of the People, Melbourne Festival 2012 and Hedda Gabler, Melbourne Festival 2011) join forces with Chunky Move’s Artistic Director Anouk van Dijk and the Melbourne Theatre Company for a global co-production.
“Falk is really one of the most outstanding German directors at the moment, and this is the fifth time that he’s worked with Anouk,” notes Ridge. “They both share an approach to creating work that is truly not theatre nor dance. The two art forms are really integrated.”
The two are also working with another artist from Schaubühne Berlin – composer Malte Beckenbach, who first collaborated with Richter and van Dijk in 1999 on their first joint work Nothing Hurts. “You’ve got those three creative European minds (even though Anouk has adopted Australia), and working with them we have our own Daniel Schlusser as dramaturg and translator, Gary Abrahams as assistant director and we also have a local design team – Robert Cousins has created a wonderful environment with a team of artists. And of course, the performers, the people on stage. It’s a true international collaboration. Everyone who is part of it will have an experience that will lead into the work that they do in the future.”
This year will see the festival shine a spotlight on circus, with performances from groups from Europe, North America, Asia and Australia featuring Cirque Eloize, Nanjing Acrobatic Troupe, Circa, NICA, Flying Fruit Fly Circus, Dislocate, D’Irque & Fien and Circus Oz. “Conceptually, circus really touches on a few of the points that I think are very important for a festival,” details Ridge. “One of those is partnerships, and the circus focus this year allows us to work with a range of very important organisations and artists. It’s the sort of project that not only can a festival do beautifully, but it’s the sort of thing that only a festival can do – which is bring together different partners and focus on something from multiple dimensions.
“There’s a lot of circus in Melbourne – it’s got a lot of history in our cultural landscape, and circus is one of the most progressive art forms at the moment. For those reasons I believe it’s very timely to have a circus focus. It’s a very important part of what’s going on in the contemporary performing arts space – and it’s something that Australians excel at.”
Other highlights of the vast 2014 program include an exploration into the life of the enigmatic Vivian Maier, who produced more than 100,000 photographic images over her lifetime (all of which remained undiscovered until two years before her death in 2007). Carsten Holler’s life-sized Golden Mirror Carousel will light up the NGV; a major new architecture commission and design event MPavilion will take over the city; the flagship contemporary music event, Light from the Outside World, will see Detroit techno titan Jeff Mills join forces with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra at Hamer Hall; and the return of the ever versatile Foxtel Festival Hub will provide the perfect pre and post-show retreat, serving as a pop-up bar, performance space, dining destination and dance floor.
“The Trisha Brown retrospective is going to be extraordinary,” shares Ridge when quizzed on a few personal picks from the program. In 2012, the legendary choreographer announced her retirement from the dance company that she founded in 1970. In celebration of her career, this year at Melbourne Festival the Trisha Brown Dance Company will perform no fewer than 17 of her works in a wide-ranging program that is rounded out with a series of films, talks and a workshop of her early work with students of the Victorian College of the Arts. “For most people it will be the opportunity to see her work live for the first time. It’s now uncertain what will happen in the future of her company, so I think it’s something that people interested in choreography will jump on.
“I think of lot of the younger performers and choreographers will see these works and notice so many of the seeds of their own works. Trisha Brown was so influential, and over 50 years that permeated through a whole range of contemporary modern choreographers.
“When the mountain changed its clothing is really a work that’s at the heart of the whole program,” she adds as another personal highlight. The epic-scale production is the latest work to come from legendary German theatre maverick Heiner Goebbels and features 40 young singers from world-renowned Vocal Theatre Carmina Slovenica. “It’s a magnificent example of the work that Heiner does, he’s an extraordinary theatre-maker. It’s a piece that really illustrates so much of what I love about the performing arts. It’s neither music nor theatre – it’s just a celebration of incredible creativity.”
As we reach the final pages of the program and try to comprehend the sheer diversity and scope, Ridge’s delight in the gargantuan body of work that she has collected is palpable. However, with the 2014 festival yet to even kick off, she’s already eyeing into the future and the ongoing legacy that both she and the festival itself will leave on the artistic landscape of Australia and abroad. “I started working on the programs over all three of my years (2013 – 2015) from the very beginning, back when I was appointed in early 2012,” she notes. “I really hope that that over time, and as we get to the end of the 2015 festival, that there will be an arc that is apparent throughout the programs – a story that travels throughout all of the three festivals. We’re already furiously planning next year’s program.”
BY TYSON WRAY
