The Bogong Centre for Sound Culture produced the free festival Phantasmagoria, which will be launched next weekend.

Based on “phantasmagoria” – a sequence of images like that seen in a dream – the project comprises performances, exhibitions and artist talks from April 7-9.

An exhibition of video and sound works will open each weekend from April 15-30.

Bogong Centre for Sound Culture co-founders Madelynne Cornish and Philip Samartzis have curated the festival, which distorts Bogong Village and transforms it into a world of shadows, murmurs and dreams.

Samartzis said Bogong Village was essentially depopulated since it was originally built for workers on the Kiewa Hydro Electric Scheme.

He said the festival used modern art practices to create illusion and spectacle, tracing the vanishing individuals and communities in the alpine region.

“It was a question of how do we reinstate all those people and all of that knowledge,” he said.

“It repopulates the village through a range of art platforms.” 

The festival follows more than 70 artist residencies in the region since 2010, all funded by Cornish and Samartzis through the Bogong Centre for Sound Culture.

The pair’s love for contemporary and site-responsive art spurred them to found and fund the cultural initiative, which fosters a broad cultural program comprising festivals, exhibitions, publications, master classes and artists’ talks focusing on site-specific art practices.

Samartzis said there were many things at play when art was framed by the environment and topography.

“It’s a very different experience from going to an art gallery; you’re relying on the artwork and the atmosphere and even the weather conditions,” he said.

“Rather than it being a passive experience, here you have to work for it a bit and probe a bit.”

Phantasmagoria artists include Atticus Bastow, Matthew Berka, Peter Blamey, Elise Bonato, Sharyn Brand, Katharina Brauer, Ben Byrne, Christophe Charles, Madelynne Cornish, Melissa Deerson, Lesley Duxbury, Kylie Esler, Aidan Kelly, Daniel Lercher, Willy Merz, Harry Nankin, Overtone Ensemble, Charinthorn Rachurutchata, Geoff Robinson, Philip Samartzis, Gabi Schaffner, Jacqui Shelton, Utako Shindo, Erin K Taylor, Michael Vorfeld, Bryden Williams, Sarah Edwards, Kim Lane and Mount Beauty Secondary College students.

They have drawn on folklore, historical documentation and artefacts to create their works.

Bogong Village is in Alpine National Park between Mount Beauty and Falls Creek. The Bogong High Plains region is of significance to residents and the traditional owners including the Bidhawal, Dhudhuroa, Gunai–Kurnai and Nindi–Ngudjam Ngarigu Monero people who used to meet on the highest peaks of the alpine area before they were displaced by the influx of cattle drovers in the 1830s.