Next Wave Festival

Melbourne's public and private spaces are taken over as artists from Australia and around the world explore ideas of proximity and convenience.

Editorial Review

15-31 May '08
Various locations, Melbourne
Next Wave Official Site.

The theme for the 2008 Next Wave Festival is 'closer together'. Inspired by the idea that we are being brought closer together as a global culture through media and communication technologies, this festival explores ideas of closeness and the conflicted nature of the term. It looks at how closeness affects the community and how it connects people together and examines ideas of claustrophobia, invasion and much more.

This festival showcases the works of more than 400 young and emerging artists from Australia and around the world over two weeks. It uses such mediums as visual art, dance, new media and literature in order to confront and comfort audiences. The artwork is displayed in varied locations: the internet, a seedy hotel room, nightclub toilets, a hidden bunker beneath Federation Square and several other places you would not traditionally expect to find works of art.

Artistic Director Jeff Khan says that the works presented at this year's festival ". . . are an open invitation to connect (with artists and punters alike) in multiple ways - from the humorous to the confronting, the provocative, the inspirational and the downright messy. Next Wave invites you to dive in and enjoy."

Patrick Tangye