cph-art had a talk with architect Jes Vagnby. He is the man behind the Roskilde festival area, its design, lay-out, and artistic expression.

You have arranged the festival for many years. What drives you? What makes you do it, why do you find it interesting, and what is the most interesting thing about it?

- The festival is an event that is very concentrated. There’s an immense work of preparation, there’s the construction in itself, and then the event takes place, and then there’s only a very short time to tear it all down, and it’s all gone again. What’s left is the recollection of what happened. So the image in your memory is essential.

When you are working with something that you have to tear down again, you have the potential, but also an obligation, to go further than if it were something that were to stand for a hundred years. That’s why I think that we must experiment more, be wilder, we must be able to and have the guts to do exceptional things. It’s important to involve the audience because we arrange the festival for them, so it’s about the audience being involved and carried away trough an experience beyond the usual. And that again is about doing something that’s extraordinary, very intense and exciting.

- Furthermore I find it intriguing because the centre of rotation is music, and to me music is an international means of communication. Whether you come from Iceland or from South Africa or you come from India. We are communicating around the same element. It has something to do with how people meet.

- As my point of departure I’m thinking or defining the festival as ’Real Second Life’. A life that is like the internet portal Second Life where you can live a life beyond your daily life. A life in Cyberspace. To me the Roskilde Festival is real, a ’Second Life’ taking place in reality. And there I see greater qualities and possibilities than in the theoretical ’Second Life’. And when I say, a real ’Second Life’, it’s because we, as a festival, do our best to be a place where experiences are different. And this we do primarily through sustaining a high artistic level based on music, art and audience-involving installations as well as using our intellect.

- You can say that I’m working from or with the idea that was formulated by Nietzsche, "Out of chaos a dancing star is born". And that is the basis of my work. Our ambition is to release and set free the audience. Our aim is to offer them a city that is so big and different, with an equally different and intense content, that they will be released from everyday norms and duties. We are creating new norms, new ways of being together. A new openness to other festival guests, but also to a high degree an openness to the artistic input they receive. When you leave, you may be confused or elated to a higher level, and this means that you have moved on in life, that you have obtained a greater insight into your own soul, into your own capability. And we don’t have to do this through drugs, but we do it in a mental way. We are doing this through our set-up and the total of its impact – chaos.

Actually, we are seeking chaos. A controlled chaos, but we are seeking chaos, in order that each individual gets the biggest experience possible. In order that there’s a release, that you get a trip. That you reach a higher level.

- We divide the Roskilde Festival in three. We have a camping area, and we have an inner square. This we call "four plus four". The way it must be understood, is that the first four days there is no music. We are working with the individual’s own initiative, and we are working with implication and involvement. The audience arrive, camp down and interact with each other, developing things. And among other things we do this by offering the opportunity to place yourself in various communities where each community has an "agora", which means ”square” in Greek. The agoras are divided in two. One part contains kitchen and eating areas, toilets and baths, security depots and convenience store, etc. The other part is theme expansion areas where the audience to a great extent can develop things themselves. In that way the first four days are the days where focus is on "participation", whereas in the last four days focus is directed towards inner space and the music. Here focus is "fascination" from the great supply of music.

It’s important that the first four days and the last four days together form a unity that strengthens the very special spirit of community of the festival. Each individual has a responsibility to the community that makes the festival such a positive place to be.

- But perhaps the most interesting is what happens during the walk from the place where you live, to the music stages. This is where the extra experiences are created, when you walk through the festival city, when you are using the city. This is where the city begins to offer you something, where the city begins to set things in motion, where you as a festival guest experience yourself in the meeting with others. Where you enter into some projects and develop yourself. It’s the third area. This is where the audience involve themselves and develop themselves between the music and life in the tents.

- I think there’s something unusual and extraordinarily beautiful in meeting people that are going through a process of being released. And especially so in a musical environment, because music is very strong, and it creates some strong images in my mind, it expands and accelerates my creative process. That’s why I find it extremely interesting to do something that relates to my field of profession, to architecture, which I think is an exceptionally strong field, and that it at the same time is a temporary thing, and because it, above all, is about the social relations, human relations, and the human development in a musical environment, in the artistic expression. That’s why I’m there. I’m here because I like it.

What do you yourself think will be most interesting at this year’s festival? What are you most of all looking forward to?

- The last few years we have been working to differentiate the various stages. To differentiate the Roskilde Festival areas housing the various stages. We are trying to differentiate them more and more so they will present singular areas with their own identity, their own music, their own organization, and their own food characteristics. I think we have succeeded in creating various areas that are very fascinating, for instance the Odeon, which is a distinct ecological and recycling area, both when we look at the food and the product for sale. And we are trying as far as possible to secure that they are fair trade products. That I think is very impressive. In the Cosmopol area we make room for minorities and sub-cultures, for the growth layers of our society. That I think is an equally impressive area, especially at a time where the growth layers aren’t really given any room. We see that in our general understanding of Jagtvej 69 where we as a society, as a country, as a city, have fought the creativity and the activity seen there. That’s why I think it’s great to establish an area at the Roskilde Festival that sustains this spirit.

I can see that the main thing for you is the interaction between the festival and audience, and how the festival is involving the audience in various processes. The interaction between the audience, the music and the physical and esthetic organization. This is all very interesting and important to you. What is it in your background that gives you this drive to create this interaction? Where do you find your pleasure in doing it?

- I’m an optimist; I’m a democrat and an artistic person. I’m an architect and have a positive approach to life and to my fellow human beings. I enjoy the being together, the art, the music, and then it’s actually fortunate when you are able to gather it all in one.
But why I enjoy it – that you must ask my genes, laughs Jes.

Photo: Jes Vagnby, Laura Stamer
translated from Danish by Asbjørn Skytte