Three men look over a lit up screen in a dark room with pixelated cubes throughout the image that are green and orange.

AU.X Screenworks BIO:MASS by M@ Cornell

  • Dance
  • Cinema
  • Experimental
  • Studio
  • Run time: 45 minutes Subject to change

Combining live dance and experimental film, BIO:MASS is multidisciplinary cinema that transcends the screen format.

Three dancers with backgrounds in breaking, parkour, and contemporary dance perform live in tandem with film scenes of speculative far futures. Depicting an enigmatic monument of suspended plant material sealed in water, film vignettes zoom in on the tiniest details of life and zoom out on the passing of time. While onstage the dancers spiral in and out of sync, sharing tenderness and solitude, striving for a physicality that will help them thrive in a changed future.

Through the immediacy of the dancers bodies and the haunting sense of time in the filmic vignettes, BIO:MASS contemplates scale, temporality, cycles, change, perspective and endurance, pointing to the entanglement of life and the biosphere that sustains it.

BIO:MASS has been commissioned by the Sydney Opera House. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. BIO:MASS was supported through a residency at Theatre and Performance Studies, The University of Sydney, Australia; and Next Wave’s All Schools Exchange, Melbourne, Australia. BIO:MASS has been supported by Critical Path, Centre for Choreographic Research, Sydney, Australia. This project is supported in-kind by the team at Legs On The Wall, Sydney, Australia. Aspects of this project are carried out in ongoing partnership with the Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab, Taipei, Taiwan.

Image credit: Photographer, Lucy Parakhina.

Presented by Sydney Opera House

Event details

Cast and credits

Director and choreographer
Matt Cornell
Merinda Davies
Biomaterial Design/Art Direction
Dramaturg
Angela Goh
Collaborator and perfomer
Nasim Patel Romain Hassanin
Live feed VFX/Digital coding
Solomon Thomas
Cinematographer, editor, colourist
Matt McGuigan (Hospital Hill)
Composer
Corin Ileto
Lighting Designer
Govin Ruben

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Attending this event

Practical information about this event, ticketing and visiting. If you have questions or need help, see our general terms and conditions for tickets and events or contact us.

Ticket information

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Plan your visit

Address

Sydney Opera House
Bennelong Point
Sydney NSW 2000
Australia

Getting to the venue

The Opera House is a 7-10 minute walk from Circular Quay, and is easily accessible by car, train, ferry, lightrail, bus, bike and on foot.

Location and access

Studio

The Studio is located in the north-western corner of Sydney Opera House, best accessed through the Western Foyers.

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