Since starting out as a single stage at Glastonbury, and graduating to a fully-fledged festival in 2004, Glade has become the UK's go-to festival for top class electronic music. But while many festivals rely on big name headliner acts to draw in crowds, Glade has something else up its sleeve. Helped by the production company Secret Productions (responsible for the extravaganza that is Secret Garden Party), Glade is one of the few festivals that concentrate on visual and artistic stimulation, as well as that for the ears.
And this year there's something new again. Secret Arts, a recently launched foundation funding and promoting installation art in the UK, is providing a platform for young artists to create work for Glade. Secret Arts, the only foundation to solely support installation art in the UK started with the aim of taking art out of the gallery, and making it accessible to everyone, everywhere -- starting with Glade.
Crane.tv travelled to Hertfordshire, UK to meet with Stuart Alexander one of the artists involved in this inspired initiative. "During the day I work as a lighting designer...but what I do after hours is an exploration into unknown pleasures and undecided futures exploring light, architecture and space," he tells us. "I proposed an installation to Glade back in December time and met with the curator of Secret Arts who really liked my concept...an immaterial maze created from one simple element, a silver foil curtain, which we're repeating throughout an entire tessellation through the woods."
Alexander's psychedelic, mind-bending installation, exploring reflectance, light and space needs to be seen to be believed, but it's sure to be one of the festival's talking points. "I'm not sure what people are going to experience or who they're going to meet in it, but there is definitely going to be some interesting stories."
To read more about Secret Arts visit the website here: http://secretarts.co.uk
Text by Holly Fraser for Crane.tv
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