Eurovision fans have been baying for blood, convincing that because of reported technical issues with a part of the stage, this will be the worst contest … evah!
To be fair, it might have been helpful to hear from Eurovision/EBU on the matter given the obvious interest online, but today set designer Francesca Montinaro took part in a discussion panel organised by the University of Turin to talk about her work at Eurovision 2022.
Symbolism
Speaking about the design, she noted: “Television encourages you to make powerful installations, which reach many people.” Her mission was to find a way to represent Italy in her design. “Italians are a tremendously complex people, incredibly multifaceted.”
She admitted it’s hard to sum up one complex nation in a single symbol. She was inspired by the stage from Vienna in 2015 – even if (she admits) that had little to do with Austria. Basing her design around a semicircular sun was the answer.
Enjoy the surprise
Francesca went on to talk about how 92 companies worked together to bring the stage to the screen, adding that the photos shown online can’t possibly demonstrate what the stage is capable of doing – in particular the ‘kinetic sun’.
On that hot topic, Danish DR today issued a statement confirming the ‘sun’ will not move as planned. Not because it is broken, but because producers now realise it moves too slowly to change in the 40 seconds between songs, and rather than let some countries use it and others miss out, it will only be used for the opening and interval acts and the voting. So technically speaking, it isn’t broken, it’s just not fit for purpose.
Keeping it static means some effects will be lost. It’s far easier for a lighting designer to use the fixtures on the back of the arches than for the video teams to conceptualise, create, tweak, and finish video content for the LED panels. Lithuania, Norway, Denmark and Latvia have all confirmed that they’ve been asked to change their performance.
Overjoyed
Despite all of this, Francesca insisted everything is working perfectly. Beyond that she refused to answer questions about widely reported technical issues. Most importantly, she said she wants everyone to enjoy the surprise when they get to watch the shows. She ended by insisting all the delegations are ‘overjoyed’ by what they’ve found when arriving in Turin.