Next Wave Festival Returns to Melbourne in 2014

The future of art as we know it will unfold in Melbourne from 16 April - 11 May, 2014 as part of Next Wave Festival 2014: New Grand Narrative. A city-wide, month-long celebration of cutting-edge arts and culture from around Australia and the globe, in 2014 Next Wave celebrates its 30th anniversary with a tightly curated selection of the most ambitious, risky and surprising new art, including performance, dance, visual art, sound art - and ideas impossible to categorise.

"Next Wave is renowned for creating an irresistible artistic whirlwind that is impossible to ignore and completely unique in Australia," said Emily Sexton, Next Wave Artistic Director. "In 2014 we have created a festival experience that will seize your imagination and your soul with a mix of artistic works of outstanding quality, ambition and - even dangerous - experimentation."

Occurring every two years, Next Wave Festival 2014 will span 28 days and features the work of 239 artists, who - at the time of their presentation in 2014 - will have been incubating their artwork for over two years.

An incomparable platform for new and emerging artists, Next Wave has launched the career of notable alumni such as painter Adam Cullen, sculptor Patricia Piccinini, Indigenous visual artist Bindi Cole, theatre ensemble post, and comedy music theatre troupe The Suitcase Royale.

"We curate artists who are genuinely seeking out something that's never been done before and we offer them the tools and support they need to succeed," said Emily Sexton. "All that hope and dreaming and curiosity in one place - in a city as adventurous as Melbourne - makes for a potent blend of provocation and fun. Challenging, but never too serious; clever, but genuine. Audiences will talk about, see and do things at Next Wave Festival that just don't happen anywhere else."

Weaving stories that are often overlooked and from voices that are seldom heard, Next Wave Festival 2014 features over 40 never-before-seen new art projects that have been created especially for the Festival.

Next Wave Festival 2014 boasts a robust program of multi-disciplinary art projects that will be staged in theatres, galleries, laneways, private homes and other unexpected spaces around Melbourne.

From Korean speakeasy cabarets to public portraits of abattoir workers, surreal car boot sales to art dates via Tinder; from Palestine to Broome, Manila to Rockhampton, Next Wave's artists have explored all corners of the planet and will land in Melbourne in 2014 to rally audiences into a new era.

"Our 2014 Festival, New Grand Narrative, has been curated as story with a beginning, middle, climax and end. In this way, Next Wave Festival allows you to stretch out and take your time to think about things over four weeks, or have it all crash together in one weekend of madness. And you can be sure it will involve as much talking, drinking and eating as it does art," said Emily Sexton.

Commencing with a series of talks and parties that will frame the Festival from 16 - 28 April, the main program will run 29 April - 11 May, culminating in two art-filled weekends dubbed The Climax. The Festival concludes with the IETM Satellite Meeting at Arts Centre Melbourne on 12 - 14 May.

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