Icelandic art-pop musician Björk will headline Perth Festival 2023 for an Australian-exclusive season of her dazzling live concert experience Cornucopia in the heart of Perth.
The performances are part of a special Festival closing celebration supported by Tourism WA, as audiences are invited into a custom-made pavilion in Langley Park to discover Björk’s cyber-sonic Garden of Eden in which nature and technology merge in perfect harmony.
Björk has presented Cornucopia only a few times in select cities around the world and the Icelandic icon’s week-long Perth riverfront residency is a rare opportunity to experience her spectacular theatrical concert masterpiece for the first time in Australasia.
The production is Björk’s most elaborate production yet and her first and only live concert performance in Australia since 2008. She takes to the stage in a special 100m x 55m pavilion, the largest of its kind to be seen in the Southern Hemisphere and constructed exclusively for Perth Festival, which will host almost 5,000 guests each night.
Co-directed by Björk and Argentinian filmmaker Lucrecia Martel, this “sci-fi pop concert” is based on her environmentally themed 2017 album Utopia, plus songs from new album Fossora and hits from her 30-year solo career.
There are water drums, a cocoon-like reverb chamber, a video message from Greta Thunberg, costumes by the fashion house Balmain and the lavish visuals of artist Tobias Gremmler projected above designer Chiara Stephenson’s beautiful forest of flora and fungi.
“There is no greater joy than welcoming Björk to Perth. She is an adored artist at the forefront of international creative imagining, and Cornucopia is the epitome of that artistry” said Artistic Director Iain Grandage. “Here on Noongar Boodjar in one of the ten most bio-diverse places on the planet, we welcome her explosion of visual and aural wonderment with open arms and excited expectation. We hope you can join us.”
The full Perth Festival 2023 program will be announced next Thursday, October 27.
Björk’s Cornucopia hits Langley Park on Friday, March 3, Monday, March 6, Thursday, March 9 and Sunday, March 12, 2023. Tickets are on sale Thursday, November 3 from perthfestival.com.au/bjork
