London’s Southbank Centre have announced that 2012’s edition of the Meltdown Festival is to be curated by Antony Hegarty, frontman of Antony & The Johnsons and former collaborator with the likes of Bjork, CocoRosie, Devendra Banhart and Lou Reed.
This year’s edition of the annual festival, which is curated by a different artist each year, will take place in venues throughout the Southbank Centre from 1st-12th August. Last year’s edition was curated by Ray Davies, and previous curators have included Jarvis Cocker, Laurie Anderson and Ornette Coleman.
Given the wide ranging interests of Meltdown’s former curators, Southbank’s choosing Hegarty makes sense. The festival will gather together music, discussion and performances that reflect the themes of his own work.
"I want to create a kind of paradise," said Hegarty of Meltdown 2012. "I want to walk through that forest and see and hear the hardcore beauty and strength in art and music that makes sense to me. The weather is changing and everybody knows it. I want to participate; What is my relationship and responsibility to the world around me? Frontier expressions of emotion and beauty can be fantastic tools with which to enter that discussion."
The full line-up is set to be announced during April – more news when we have it.
