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The project called Arche Nova involved the convoy of 39 unique lorries that were 1km in length and travelled for one-month through northern Germany. Part of the caravan was a large multifunctional scenery. Involved in the convey were more than 100 people that consisted of drivers, artists, technicians, maintenance, children and families. The objective was to highlight unification through contract of the arch of the covenant between catholic and protestant faiths that has existed for 350 years and this event was designed to mark that occasion. The caravan questioned in art form the unification of people and peace, not only for the past, but also today and the future years ahead. The caravan passed through twenty different villages between northern Germany and Holland.Part of the program when we arrived at each villages, artists would create unique projects amongst the people. A second part, was the use of old caravans for smaller groups and projects and the third part was a big theatre production on the main scene.
My own role in this project started more than one-year before the event itself, and I was responsible for creating the main scene, which was a multi functional/level structure. A major design concept of the structure was the ability to dismantle and assemble the structure in a short space of time approximately no more than two hours. In addition, it needed to host more than 60 artists at any one time. Moreover, when we were transporting the structure, we needed to ensure that we adhered to the transport laws of each area we drove in, regarding the size of the structure. The size being exactly 15 metres long, 4 metres high and 2.5 metres wide. When assembled, it had a length of 25 metres long, 7.5 metres long and 5.5 metres wide when stationary. The structure incorporated two towers that were raised with motors to create the height. Due to size and time constraints, it was important to create a system where the overall floor space was dramatically increased in a short space of time. This was achieved by positioning additional wagons against the main wagon that created a table effect. This also enabled us to winch up a slide for the use of actors to the height of 2.5 metres and 5 metres in length.
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