The 2013 Roskilde Festival in Denmark, an event which dates back to 1972 which aims to promote international music and the creative arts, is the location of The Velvet State, a project by the practice of SHJ works in collaboration with two of the main performers, Denmark’s Fiction Pimps and Collective Unconscious from the UK. The project is composed of a series of curved structures for an interactive event based around the anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep’s concept of liminality.
Formed from plywood panels joined by polycarbonate ‘stitches’ the structures reference the construction of costume design. A total of 12 individual rooms make up 5 spaces entitled ‘the ring’, ‘the ridge’, ‘the reactor’, ‘the barn’ and ‘the dressing room’ all encircling a central courtyard which functions as the main performance area. At night, the space adopts a new exciting identity as a dome stage opens up beneath one of the structures to reveal a colourful illuminated stage for musical performances.
