Qulture Magazine

Words: Laura M Ross

Walking into a space where you know many people have worked themselves to the bone, in a time where industry was thriving, just made the whole experience of this event more meaningful and breathtaking. With signs of the old machinery still visible in every space you enter and ceilings too high to even conceive, it’s easy to see why the team chose this site.

Hidden Door is a unique charity, which was founded in 2009, and is run by a team of around fifty volunteers from all over the UK, that give up their time to put on small pop up events throughout the year. The main one being a yearly five day festival that celebrates all things art, music, dance, film and much much more. Giving exposure to emerging artists, musicians, dancers, performers and film makers, and giving them a space and platform to bring their new works to life and to a large audience. We were lucky enough to be given the opportunity to go along and spend the weekend at their latest venture which was held at an amazing industrial venue, The Paper Factory on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

As we arrived I didn’t know what to expect from the nonchalant entrance but as soon as we walked in and went through the first door past the box office area, I could tell this was going to be unique. We were first greeted by projected colorful images on both sides of a small hallway, making it feel like you were going through some sort of worm hole into the main area. Once through, the space opened up in to a massive expanse, where there was something to see everywhere you looked. The way the team and artists used the many rooms, outbuildings and areas, blows my mind. They really took care to not only make the most of this amazing venue, but made it part of the art in a fully immersive and collaborative experience. Really showcasing the beauty that can be found in the every day, and spaces that are now disused, abandoned and otherwise rendered useless to some.

Saturday

The first space we came to was the ‘Room to Play’ and ‘Club Room’ areas which integrated a chill out zone and two amazing spaces where musicians, rappers and DJs performed all weekend. There were posters with set times outside each space throughout the venue, so you could co-ordinate your time and plan out where to be for what events. This was a great touch and made it very easy to plan things. We just caught the end of a rapper, who was performing in this space, before we headed out to discover what else the spaces had in store.

Next we took in some of the physical and visual art scattered throughout the many main areas, out buildings and rooms. It would be hard to mention every piece, but some of the ones that stood out to me, included Silas T Parry’s ‘Dreamworms’, Juliana Capes ‘Rainbow Pools’ which was a huge installation of colorful spheres in the shape of a waterfall. Then an amazing walk-through installation called ‘Trash Cave/Waste Is Only Waste If We Make It Waste’ by Laura McGlinchey, made entirely out of paper machet from what I could tell, and put together to form a cave which was lit inside. This was a  very interactive and enjoyable piece to take in, also great for those wanting a photo op.

One of the standout pieces of visual and performance art from the day was MNDMTH (aka Mind Moth) from experimental drummer, producer and audio visual artist Stuart Brown. This piece was a site specific project made for Hidden Door, which was the Brain child of Stuart, and brought together the idea of being able to have a piece that would work well both as a performance as a whole and as a standalone exhibit. Stuart blended elements together perfectly, using stills and video clips he had gathered during many site visits to the factory, and old archive footage of machinery, in order to make visuals that were projected on to a huge wall in the long room.

For the performance element of this project, he combined the visual projections along with himself playing on an electro-acoustic drum kit. Mixing his drumming with reactive visuals to bring to life the humans and machines that once inhabited the factory. When I asked Stuart about the project he explained – “I wanted the installation to feel like ghosts of the machines still lingering in the space. The factory has now moved to a new location in a more modern building with newer technology and there is an element of the piece which explores that transition from the mechanical industrial age through the digital age and in to an imagined future where the machines appear to take on more organic biological forms.” Stuart was also happy to share his experience of Hidden Door saying – “It’s such a unique, positive and creatively inspiring festival and it’s amazing to have so many art forms represented under the one roof. In an arts scene that can sometimes feel a little isolating and divided, Hidden Door feels like one of the most positive things happening for the arts scene in Scotland right now in terms of bringing together artists from all disciplines, supporting their individual vision and making the arts fun and accessible to the public. Long may it continue!”

Musically throughout the day and evening were many great performances from emerging bands and artists from all over the UK. There was a Jack Daniels stage which had a bar selling lots of cocktails with the bourbon at the center, but the stand out thing for me in this space was the amazing lighting, and this was a theme that ran throughout the venue. So,  I take  this opportunity to thank the team who were behind that, as they did a fantastic job for all of the artists. The Machine Room was also an amazing space for bands.

Some of the acts we caught on Saturday included, Night Caller who were almost like a mash up of The Killers and Franz Ferdinand but super high energy, singer songwriter Theo Bleak who has an extremely enchanting voice which carried beautifully in the industrial space, singer and musician Katy J Pearson also put on a great set, indie Rock band No Windows who are an emerging act to keep an eye on, Indie outfit The Orielles who brought funk and uniqueness to their set and Electro Punk masterpiece Brenda who showed us why punk isn’t dead and has come back with a modern twist!

However, a standout from the day were, emotional gritty rock band Day Sleeper from Edinburgh, who absolutely killed their set and had everyone dancing and vibing along. They just have something unique about them, which made me instantly add them to my playlist when I got home. Definitely one to keep an eye on, and I highly recommend you check out their latest EP ‘This House Won’t Fold’ below.

Finishing the night off we went to take in the absolutely wondrous, SPECTRAL, which was a performance piece, combining music from Dave House along with extremely talented dancers performing Ariel and floor choreography from Tess Letham. This was all accompanied by a visually breathtaking display of lasers and lighting from Sam Wood in the Crane Shed, which was an enormous space. I almost forgot where I was while watching this, as it felt like something you might see in Las Vegas.

Finally, we took a walk back over to the Club Room where Samedia DJs and Toya Delazy were putting on an absolute corker of a set for a jam packed room of people dancing the night away. Toya knows how to work a crowd and is a very talented lyricist. I am not a big dancer, but the beats combined with Toya’s energy got me moving body parts I’d forgotten I had.

Lastly we must mention the amazing food vendors who were there through rain and shine serving up some delicious international cuisines. We tackled some amazing Mexican street food from Fat Flamingo. But other things on offer were Paellas from House of Tapas, Japanese street food from Harajuku Kitchen and Taberu as well as Fried Chicken Cones from Chicken Skoop.

Saturday was a very full on day, and I wish I could mention everything and everyone we took in throughout the day as they all deserve recognition.

Full Gallery COMING SOON!

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