Sydney Opera House to Present EVOLUTION OF FEARLESSNESS

The Sydney Opera House will present Evolution of Fearlessness, an immersive, interactive installation by internationally acclaimed Australian video artist and director Lynette Wallworth at the 2016 All About Women festival on Sunday 6 March, continuing through International Women's Day until Sunday 13 March.

Celebrating the resilience of women who have survived great hardship, Wallworth's involving and evolving work was originally commissioned by Peter Sellars for the New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna in 2006 and most recently presented as part of the of the 2015 World Economic Forum. Based on the stories of 11 Australian women, most of whom were refugees, Evolution of Fearlessness creates a one-to-one experience in which a viewer's touch activates a life-sized video of one of the women.

"The work creates a moment of video touch. What you experience from looking into these women's eyes is not their devastation, but rather and perhaps surprisingly, their love," Lynette Wallworth explains.

Through Evolution of Fearlessness, the artist enables these women - who have lived through wars and survived concentration camps or extreme acts of violence in countries including Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq and El Salvador - to connect with viewers and share their stories of making a new life.

Sydney Opera House Head of Talks and Ideas Ann Mossop says: "We are delighted to be able to include the work of Lynette Wallworth, an important Australian artist, in All About Women. Evolution of Fearlessness creates a very powerful experience for audiences and brings a different kind of storytelling to the festival at a time when the world is grappling with the fate of refugees."

Evolution of Fearlessness is considered a sequel to Invisible by Night (2004), which tells the story of a woman grieving for loved one. Evolution of Fearlessness featured as part of a trilogy of Lynette Wallworth works at Sydney Festival 2010 and was selected by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi for Brighton Festival 2011.

In 2015, Lynette Wallworth became the first artist selected to participate in the six-month Sundance Institute New Frontier | Jaunt VR Residency Program, producing Collisions, a modern story of first contact in Australia's desert, experienced in virtual reality. This month she was also awarded a MacArthur Documentary Film Grant.

Sydney Opera House Talks and Ideas presents ideas, conversation and debate from leading thinkers and culture creators from around the world, extending the reach of live events with unique content online. As well as a year-round program of inspiring events, Sydney Opera House Talks & Ideas features annual festivals All About Women and the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, one-day talks events For Thought and Carnegie Conversations, and the arts talks series Culture Club.

Now in its fourth year, All About Women is one of Sydney Opera House's flagship festivals. It is a full day of talks and discussions about ideas that matter to women, providing an important platform for women's voices. Featuring 30 guests from Australia, Canada, France, Mexico, North Korea, Russia, South Africa and the United States, the packed 2016 program co-curated by Danielle Harvey and Ann Mossop explores issues ranging from equality, unconscious bias and violence to the economy, masculinity, female incarceration, Indigenous activism, and the power of the female memoir. Speakers include Anne-Marie Slaughter, Miranda July, Piper Kerman, Carrie Brownstein, Jennifer Clement, Mallory Ortberg, Margie Orford and more.

For more information, visit: http://aaw.sydneyoperahouse.com/line-up/evolution-of-fearlessness.

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