Celebrate Queer and First Nations Stories. Midsumma 2025 at Abbotsford Convent

by | Jan 21, 2025

Celebrate Queer and First Nations Stories through Dance and Performance. Midsumma 2025 at Abbotsford Convent

Australia’s iconic Abbotsford Convent presents its Midsumma 2025 program, featuring a ground-breaking line-up of artists sharing work that champions creativity, inclusivity, identity, and community. From powerful dance performances and immersive exhibitions to genre-defying live films and intimate storytelling, Abbotsford Convent highlights include:

CODED: A Night of Queer Storytelling 
23 – 25 January
Amelia Jean O’Leary’s latest dance creation, CODED, offers an intimate and powerful exploration of First Nations femme queer identities, exploring themes of personified queerness within landscape and culture. Featuring three dynamic new works, CODED brings together a talented ensemble of dancers, including Emily Earther, Carmen Yih, Wendy Feng, and O’Leary herself.

CODED, underpinned by Amelia’s haunting score, draws one Amelia’s cultural heritage as a Gamilaraay woman to craft a visually arresting and thought-provoking experience, challenging ideas of belonging and identity in a world where queerness is often marked as other.

QRAVE 
The Performance: 29 January – 1 February
Exhibition: 29 January – 8 February
QRAVE is a deeply personal and politically charged exhibition and performance by Jessi Ryan, a queer artist, journalist, and storyteller. Part research project, part immersive artwork, QRAVE uncovers and celebrates the queer histories of Melbourne’s City of Yarra and Birrarung Marr, a place where activism, struggle, and community resilience have shaped the past and present.

The exhibition features eight histories, told through powerful interviews and interactive QR codes that unlock the voices of local Blak queer activists, HIV survivors, and community elders. Bold murals, transform the exhibition space and speak to themes of resistance, protest, and personal narrative.

The performance, directed by Dan Newell, is a fierce and intimate exploration of queer history, performed by Ryan in eight-inch heels. Blurring the lines between performance and visual art, QRAVE invites audiences to reflect on the legacies of those who fought for pride, visibility, and justice.
 
Medium 
23-25 January 
In Medium, Ari Angkasa presents a provocative and visually stunning live film performance under the moonlight. Combining elements of performance lecture, sci-fi thriller, and musical extravaganza, Angkasa explores the power of cinema and storytelling to shape our collective identity. The stage becomes a cinematic space, with Angkasa as the intermediary between the screen and the audience, navigating the complexities of belonging, gender, and representation.

Each night of Medium offers a unique, haunting yet hopeful view into how stories can empower, terrify, and liberate and poses a thrilling challenge to traditional notions of film, theatre, and performance art/ Anything is possible under the stars.

Matrimony
Launch: 31 January
Exhibition: 1-2 February
Conversation Circle on Love: 1 February
Matrimony is a captivating installation by Naarm-based visual artist, writer, and curator Josephine Mead. Matrimony is deeply personal reflection on love, commitment, and queer identity. Drawing inspiration from Mead’s own wedding, the installation features a series of evocative paintings of her bridal bouquet, accompanied by a sound score created by BJ Morriszonkle and Nero Friktschn Feuerherdt. Through this work, Mead explores the intersections of queer love and ritual, prompting new conversations about what love, marriage, and commitment mean across different sexual and cultural perspectives.
As part of the exhibition, the “Conversation Circle on Love” invites the local community to discuss love, relationships, and rituals from diverse perspectives on Saturday 1 February at 1pm. Everyone is welcome to join, share experiences, and reflect on how queer voices challenge traditional notions of matrimony.

abbotsfordconvent.com.au/event/midsumma-festival-2023/

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