Antony Hegarty has named the first acts on the line up for this year’s Meltdown.
Returning to the Southbank Centre, this year’s Meltdown promises to be another vivid exploration of left field arts and music. Antony Hegarty has been installed as guest curator, with the first names on the line up being unveiled this morning (May 1st).
Marc Almond is due to perform at the London event, rampaging through a rare live performance of the influential 1983 release ‘Torment and Toreros’. Antony was clearly delighted that Almond accepted the offer to perform: “Marc laid out a trail of subcultural breadcrumbs and aesthetic tenets that more than any other single influence formed the artist that I would become. Ten years before I would hear Nina Simone make a similar affirmation, I read Marc saying that he didn’t care if he hit the notes, for it was only the feeling that mattered.”
Elsewhere, New York underground artists Laurie Anderson and Diamanda Galas are due to perform, while CocoRosie, drag performance icon Joey Arias and more have been confirmed.
Janine Rostron will perform under her Planningtorock guise, while Light Asylum have also been added to the bill. Acclaimed Serbian-born performance artist Marina Abramovi? will deliver a Lecture for Women at Meltdown, with Kembra Pfahler dissecting the 500 million year old enigma of Claywoman.
Antony offered the following quote: “I dreamed of assembling a constellation of courageous artists, all of whom have used their platforms as cultural producers to challenge us. They have exhibited a ferocity in their pursuit of beauty, and, falling like a guillotine behind it, justice.”
“Today I am among a group of artists from NYC (some of whom are performing at this Meltdown Festival) who reject patriarchy in its myriad virulent and apocalyptic manifestations, and who advocate for a fundamental shift towards the feminine in all our systems and structures of governance. We have named this approach Future Feminism.”
Meltdown runs between August 1st – 12th. Find out more HERE.