SALEM

We were approached by SALEM to design their return show at Primavera Sound, Barcelona. We closely collaborated with Jack and John to help realise their vision - to bring a piece of the American midwest to the Barcelona in the summertime.

SALEM’s Primavera Sound performance marked their first show in years, a deliberate rupture from both silence and expectation. The design embraced the aesthetic and emotional language of the sublime: fear and awe. Staging was minimal but considered with an emphasis on autheticity to try to make the show feel as close to the Midwest as possible. The staging centred around a white 3D-printed Virgin Mary. Surrounding her were elevated analogue strobe units on tank traps, chosen specifically for their imperfect burnouts and flickers. A broken real strobe scan, captured and looped, transformed the back video wall into a light source, occasionally cutting through a thick atmosphere of real smoke and snow evoking natural phenomena, iconography, and raw emotional force.