“Between two worlds life hovers like a star, twixt night and morn, upon the horizon’s verge.” – Lord Byron
The long-awaited return of the Horizon Festival hits the Sunshine Coast this month in a ten-day multi-arts celebration from 26 August to 4 September.
Horizon Festival believes that art is transformative. The Festival program celebrates local and international artists who create artistic experiences that reflect the “here and now,” igniting new ideas and fuelling the cultural vibrancy of the region.
Visual art from painting and photography to projection and sound installation, augmented reality and more, cultural connection, words and ideas, theatre, music, dance, and other performing arts from local and international artists are on view. Experience fits of laughter with comedy acts, be amazed by the circus, participate in workshops for collage, textiles, digital screen printing, wire armature sculpture, and ceramics, or immerse yourself in literature by the local writing community.
Courtney Scheu and Itamar Freed, Sand. Photograph: Itamar Freed. Courtesy the artists and Horizon Festival, Queensland
Calendar events have been described as “powerful, funny, expansive, honest and uplifting”; an annual highlight is Homegrown, a platform for local artists to extend and develop their practice and present their work at the Festival. This year’s featured artists include Dr Hope O’Chin (Aunty Hope), who shares her children’s book Guyu and My friend Mr Pelican with students, followed by a participatory workshop exploring Kabi-Kabi language. Courtney Scheu and Itamar Freed present the premiere of their contemporary dance performance Sand, a study of the relationship between body and landscape and the impacts each has on the other. The set involves one ton of sand, creating a landscape beneath the dancers and falling from the ceiling. And Kerbside Collective presents Eddie Ray – Silence of the Jams, an epic independent comic film accompanied by a live band exploring a visual manifestation of the artist’s journey when all is lost. In a dystopian world ruled by robots, aka smartphones, where live music is outlawed – one man cannot be stopped in his bid to break the silence.
View the website for the complete public program.
