The festival “New Normal 2022” presented itself as a link between the fields of contemporary music and interpersonal exchange, channeling a post-COVID-euphoria that enabled connections and networks to grow between international and local players in the music scene of Stuttgart.

Harnessing music’s powerful potential as a catalyst for the release of collective energies, the program brought together visitors, regional and international protagonists, as well as visual artists and designers to an event format that opened up Stuttgart's cultural scene to future possibilities in a profound and sustainable way.
At the same time, it engaged its participants with important questions like:
What should the new normal feel like?
How should cultural society develop after the pandemic?
What means can be used to make cultural events more inclusive in the long term?

TRIO TOURI was commissioned to develop and execute a spatial experience concept for the event located at the project space of "Kunstverein Wagenhalle", a former railroad depot in the northern area of Stuttgart. After peeling through many interfering layers of contemporary eco-social crises, we discussed the emotions we wanted the audience to experience and release during the festival.

Our final concept was marked by intentionally blending “utopian” and "dystopian" aesthetic references to create atmospheres that mirrored the complicated, hopeful yet anxious feeling that prevailed in many after finally overcoming the pandemic, only to be faced with the lingering catastrophe of climate and biodiversity collapse fueled by the inability to overcome the illusory separateness of human activity from the planet’s ecosystems.

Heavily influenced by Bruno Latour’s cathartic read Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime, we also found ourselves skeptical about the blind romanticization of the pre-globalized past and the “disneyfied” character of what we call nature.

Ultimately, we set out to create an interior landscape made from human-made surrogates of contemporary “nature” – combining the state-of-the-art computing and projection mapping power already at our disposal with rudimentary sculptural representations of the natural world and synthetic fragrances imitating wet soil and foliage.
By mainly using rental truss modules in conjunction with reclaimed waste materials from the construction, automotive and advertising industries, we aimed to act in line with the values of the festival and go easy on the planet’s resources while providing a remarkable sensual experience.