Concrete Dreams is our first official commision for exhibition design.  We intend to do more of this as being given access to an archive like that belonging to the Southbank Centre was a complete dream and joy to work with.

 

 

KlangHaus with LYN Atelier designed the Concrete Dreams exhibition.  Audiences were given special-guest status and gently guided through a live working venue, simultaneously immersed in some of the key moments and eras through the use of hand written maps, structural plans, working documents and memos, We sourced key pieces from storage and salvaged vintage patch bays, telephone, monitors to create appropriate space for  the hidden histories and lost reports, the voices and stories of performers, the stories of staff, builders and architects… all buzzing from re-purposed phones and video monitors, archival media, print and hum and always, from near and far, the music.

The show culminated in a dark, immersive, heart-racing finale, The audience eased on to the Purcell Room Stage to be engulfed by wall-to-wall cinema screens while a live Kathak dancer emerged ghost-like sliding over the architecture, to dance the refurbished auditorium, a final human touch blending seamlessly with the sound and film, tracing out 50 years of contemporary, experimental and ground breaking repertoire.

Finale shots below courtesy of Mr Pete Woodhead.