Row over bloody “sacrificial” Dark Mofo show

Tasmania’s Dark Mofo winter solstice festival has made its name from confrontational and radical performances, some of which are based on paganism.

But animal rights supporters are outraged over a three-hour performance called 150.Action which involves slaughtering an animal as part of a sacrificial ritual. The show includes live performers and an orchestra. 

The performance, which purports to beautify the process of death, needs 500 litres of blood.

Controversial 78-year-old Austrian artist Hermann Nitsch – the patriarch of Viennese Actionism, known for using carcasses, blood and the entrails of slaughtered animals, and being banned for some of his artworks –wants the meat to be eaten after.

A petition set up by Animal Liberation Tasmania calling on Hobart City Council to ban the show generated almost 5000 signatures in the first few hours. 

One of the signatories is Lord Mayor Sue Hickey. She told ABC Radio, "I don’t know when art ceases to be art and when it crosses that line and becomes something really perverse, but I think we’re very close to that mark now.”

Hickey has been a long time supporter of Dark Mofo and the way it “really stretched our boundaries and tested our senses and really put Tasmania on the map.

“But they’re not a god unto themselves and they should be pulled up when they cross that line."

She said she would ask the council to consider all options.

Dark Mofo is sponsored by the Tasmanian Government and the Hobart Council. But 150.Action is being funded by the festival itself.

At this stage Dark Mofo doesn’t look like backing off.

Creative director Leigh Carmichael said the show would be "powerful", that only people aged over 18 admitted, and the sacrifice would be conducted “humanely” before the actual performance.

"It is the artist’s intention that the meat be eaten after the event, and we are working through addressing the health and safety regulations to achieve this outcome," he told ABC Radio.