Adelaide Festival 2006
The 2006 Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts presented some of the world's most innovative art forms, as well as the more traditional ones, in the two weeks, and then some, of the 2006 program.
Running from March 3 to 19, the Adelaide Festival included 72 events, some 1200 artists and performers, and more than 130 performances.
Adelaide Festival director Brett Sheedy had been quoted as saying the festival, which attracts about 10,000 visitors, would "boldly and unapologetically affirm Adelaide as the pre-eminent cultural destination in the country."
Visual arts
The 2006 festival had a renewed emphasis on the visual arts and outdoor activities, including 31 events free to the public.
Two-thirds of the 2006 festival events came from overseas or were international-Australian collaborations.
Powerpoint and robotic sculpture
Multi-media artist David Byrne, who conducted his first I ? PowerPoint presentation at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art in 2003, explored the corporate selling tool PowerPoint as a medium for art and theatre, while Mexico-born New York artist Chico MacMurtrie created robotic performances and installations as in Inflatable Bodies.
In dance, France's street dancers Wanted Posse, stars of Sadler’s Wells’ 2005 festival, went hip-hop alongside Australian acts Terra Firma, and graffiti artists KAB101 and Kano with DMC champion DJ Staen 1.
Love and Furies
Aside from his PowerPoint show, Byrne performed in Here Lies Love presented as a Song Cycle with Byrne joining the band and singers on stage.
In Stephen Sewell's Three Furies: Scenes from the Life of Francis Bacon, adjudged by Sydney critics early in 2006 as best mainstream production and best new Australian work — and which won a directorial award for Jim Sharman in Australia's 2005 Helpmann Awards — was performed with much-awarded actor-singer Paul Capsis taking on the role of The Muse alongside Socratis Otto and Simon Burke.
Writers' Week
Adelaide Writers' Week was held from March 5 to 10 at Adelaide's Pioneer Women's Gardens with Australian and overseas writers in attendance.
There was a focus in 2006 on Dutch writing, acknowledging the 400-year process of European discovery and (un)settling.
Indian writers and writing were also highlighted, explaining the enduring and dynamic contact between India and Australia.
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