UK-based design studio NEWSUBSTANCE has announced its return to Coachella Festival 2020 with "Spectra", the studio will design, fabricate and build the large scale installation at this year's Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, which will be held from 10 - 19 April 2020, as part of the Festival’s internationally renowned program of art and design installations.

Spectra is a seven-floor colourful pavilion, spiralling over the Empire Polo Club grounds and one of the largest installations ever to be featured at the Festival.

Image courtesy of GOLDENVOICE, photo by Roger Ho, courtesy of Coachella Music and Arts Festival

In 2018 NEWSUBSTANCE was commissioned by the Festival as part of its over-arching program of art and design installations, to design and deliver a large-scale work for the festival. One among select interdisciplinary visual artists, designers and architects chosen by Coachella, Spectra will make its return to the desert for Coachella 2020, bringing colour and elevation to the music and arts festival.

NEWSUBSTANCE was tasked with designing a brave and innovative large-scale installation, across the two weekends in April. In both conception and design, Spectra is an ambitious, architecturally-informed work featuring a spiral design, observation deck at its peak, air conditioning and a colour scheme to reflect the spirit of the festival and its stunning environment.

Image © Marco Carreira

"We are delighted that Spectra is back at this year’s Coachella.  We hope that this year’s festivalgoers enjoy their journey through Spectra to take in the beautiful landscape through a different lens," said Patrick O’Mahony, Creative Director at NEWSUBSTANCE. 

When creating Spectra, NEWSUBSTANCE wanted to explore the relationship of light with the landscape of the festival, the shifting environment that this creates and how it influences those that journey through it. The festival is enriched by beautiful sunrises and sunsets that roll across the landscape and it is these explosions of colour, that are captured. As visitors ascend the pavilion in light, Spectra purposely propels them into a technicolour haven– from burning reds of the morning sunrise to a gentle sunset stroll bathed in rich purples and blues. 

Image courtesy of NEWSUBSTANCE

Every step of the journey through Spectra is unique, from different views, colours and emotions, and visitors are challenged to interpret their environment through the medium of colour. The outcome of Spectra is a band of colours, as seen in a rainbow, produced by separation of the components of light, by their different degrees of refraction according to wavelength.

Image © Nenah Bondi

"We are delighted to welcome NEWSUBSTANCE back to Coachella. Building on our art program with designers, architects and visual artists from around the world and from the Coachella Valley allows festival goers to explore shared global interests and perspectives through the experience of ambitious and one of a kind, large-scale installations," commented Paul Clemente, Art Director, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. 

"In the same way music is a universal language, the experience of these new spaces invites connectedness and adds an iconic sense of place in the spirit of the Festival."

Image courtesy of NEWSUBSTANCE

Spectra is the first ever resident art-piece at the Festival and was created, designed and fabricated in Leeds, UK. From 10 - 19 April 2020, Spectra will once return to the Coachella Valley, merging together the worlds of music and art.

Top image © Don Idio

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