a thin red line
The Sundance Film Festival celebrates storytelling’s ability to connect, transform, and open minds through film. WOW atelier took this spirit of connection to heart when designing the YouTube House, centering the space around the concept of connectivity itself. Inspired by the ancient parable of the “red thread of fate,” said to bind those destined to meet, the design incorporated elements that symbolized intertwined paths. This thread serves as a reminder of unseen forces linking us all, mirroring Sundance’s mission to reveal how our lives, like film stories, are connected in surprising ways.
The legend of Yue Lao, the god of marriage and fate, speaks to this theme. When a wealthy man discovers a red thread binding him to a poor girl, he rejects it, ordering her death. Years later, he marries a woman bearing the scars of his decision, realizing she was the girl he sought to escape. Despite this, his wife forgives him, embodying the strange, unbreakable bonds that link us.
