BEHIND LOOM Festival: #4. VIEW – Emmy & Djalil

Emmy: Since everything started, we had the idea of this collective. As friends, we had something we could give to the Barcelona scene. We all come from different places and have different skills.

Djalil: Joining forces and creating something that would be appealing to us and our circle. That’s how really the festival came up. LOOM Collective started as a group of friends that had a lot to offer and were excited to create something together. It’s more than just a party and more than just an exhibition.

What do you think you bring to LOOM and what does LOOM bring to you?

Emmy: I think not having a client makes it liberating, more like a playground, no restrictions. We have an idea and we execute it. That’s why I want to put my time into this, apart from the fact of working with friends.

Djalil: It’s kind of an experimentation lab, where you can develop your ideas and get more people involved in them. Also mixing arab, african and different cultures brings diversity. It’s like a 360º approach in which we all contribute but we also get a lot.

We like how you guys work and play around synesthesia, what were your references to create a solid visual universe on this 2019 edition?

Emmy: I really wanted to have something that felt tactical and that would provoke feelings when you see it. It’s not the most obvious way of portraying synesthesia so it was also an experiment to work with all different textures and materials. We were looking to have crazy colors, everything popping, stimulating. So in the end we started with a few references of food photography and then it turned into something more edgy but beautiful at the same time.

We thought the crowdfunding campaign was sick. The ROS was very funny and smart. What did you want to show to the viewer? We believe the different profiles have strong personalities, where did the inspiration come from?

Djalil: Our main goal was to give a bit of a preview, a little touch of what LOOM is about and what people will experience in the festival. As a reference we had infomercials, and we saw the back in the days commercials, even before the internet… something like ´hey call xyz and get something for free’. Then each character represented one of the disciplines we are exploring in the festival: music, visuals, performance and installations, and the main goal was to portrait all of this smoothly and easy to watch; and to encourage support for the crowdfunding. Crowdfunding campaign still up by the way 😉

Why Barcelona? Why has LOOM Fest chosen Barcelona?

Emmy: Naturally, we all live here so it makes it easier. But we also feel there are a lot of things happening in Barcelona with all the festivals and art events. I mean I love Sónar, but we felt something was missing on this scene and some people were underrepresented in a way, so it was more bringing a lot of focus on the people that are not being seen. That’s why there are no headliners. We don’t believe in headliners, all artists are on the same level. We wanted to give everyone a voice and to have diversity. This was missing a bit in Barcelona.

Djalil: Barcelona has the appropriate environment for this and there are a lot of festivals, almost every year there is a new festival. But we are from outside as well and wanted to give the creatives here the opportunity to create something impactful and to involve people from here. Of course, we wanted to create something very inclusive and to build this bridge between catalans, locals, and cultures. For example, Primavera is for outsiders, but we also need to see our audience, and support the artists that are emerging. Not necessarily big names. We wanted to create this opportunity for them. We wanted to create this whole experience so when you get out of the festival, you feel complete. You will have all these feelings, music, visuals… that will make you a bit confused when you get out. Maybe… (laughs) at least you will be stimulated, whether that’s good or bad but you will feel like you felt something, even scared…

Where do you see LOOM in 10 years?

Emmy: I think Loom can be anything, it doesn’t have to be a festival. It can be an agency and putting together our skills, producing content for brands or for other institutions or festivals. We could produce videos, art installations, productions. For me, I see it as something that’s very liquid and that can take different shapes.

Djalil: LOOM Collective until now, what we are exploring is the festival format; but we are not limiting ourselves. We can evolve in an agency, providing creative content or commissioned content. You know, experiment in the creative scene and wherever it takes us, it’s great because we keep exploring while providing some interesting content. We keep developing, always.