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Nudity, laser teddy bear, Indigenous art at Dark Mofo

Ethan JamesAAP
Dark Mofo's traditional nude solstice swim will be open to some 2000 courageous participants. (SUPPLIED)
Camera IconDark Mofo's traditional nude solstice swim will be open to some 2000 courageous participants. (SUPPLIED) Credit: AAP

An Indigenous opening celebration, a teddy bear with laser eyes and a two-hour all-female performance featuring woodchopping and nudity will feature in Dark Mofo's 10th edition.

The annual winter festival in Hobart returns to a full two-week program from June 8 after several COVID-19-hit years.

It will also mark the final festival for founder and creative director Leigh Carmichael.

"The last few years have been challenging ... to finally be in a position to again release a full two-week festival program feels overwhelming," he said.

"(The) festival will be a reflection of the past decade and while much has changed, our desire to celebrate the longest nights and embrace winter in Tasmania hasn't wavered."

Florentina Holzinger will present an Australian exclusive of A Divine Comedy, a large-scale, two-hour theatrical performance with a cast of 17 women.

Motocross, woodchopping, nudity and bodily fluids feature in the performance, which carries a content warning for live sex scenes.

Opening night celebration The Gathering will feature multiple Indigenous artists including BARKAA, Tasman Keith and dameeeela.

In a separate performance, German-British composer Max Richter will highlight dozens of languages in readings of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

A "giant" Korean pop culture-inspired teddy bear with lasers for eyes and a camera will feed live surveillance to a separate space in Hobart.

Dark Mofo's traditional nude solstice swim, at sunrise on June 22, will be open to some 2000 courageous participants.

The ritual burning of the Ogoh-Ogoh, in which people write down their fears and banish them into the flames, will take the shape of a platypus.

Martu artist Curtis Taylor will present a piece referencing blood rituals, cultural rites and lived experience.

Night mass has been expanded to five nights and is expected to be the "wildest party" in the event's history.

Dark Mofo was criticised in 2021 for commissioning an ultimately scrapped artwork that called for Indigenous people to donate their blood.

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