Jen and Michael were designers in residence at La Turbulente Festival, a rural theatre festival in Saint-Macaire-En-Mauges, France. The residency aimed to create a participatory installation for the festival grounds that offered shade, colour, activity, identity, and space for festival goers to hang out day + night. The concept for the Cloud Factory came from place-based research and collaboration with the Turbulente team. The modular saw-tooth structures were inspired by the factory buildings of the industrial Sèvremoine region. We were also inspired by the way that La Turbulente uses imagery of clouds and stormy skies to shape + communicate their brand identity.

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The structures were built prior to the start of the festival with the help of a phenomenal crew of volunteers. We also hosted a textile dying workshop with youth from the Centre Sociale Indigo to turn second-hand bedsheets into pink + blue cloud-making material. During the week of festival, the factory produced a storm of colourful textile clouds. We hosted hundreds of youth and community members at the Cloud Factory for drawing, painting, cutting, crafting, and talking about the joy + importance of accessible rural arts programming. The modular structures will be re-configured and reused by La Turbulente for years to come.