When Industrial Robotics Takes the Stage: KUKA and Ombra Behind Marracash’s Live Tour

Headquartered in London with a creative team working across Europe and the United States, Ombra designs live shows as complex narrative systems where technology becomes part of the performance. For Marracash’s stadium tour, this approach met KUKA’s industrial robotics, turning the stage into a dynamic organism able to move, observe and interact with music and audience.

Ombra: Designing Live Shows as Narrative Systems

Ombra was founded shortly before the Covid period as a creative collective led by Lorenzo De Pascalis, with its headquarters in London and an international team working across the UK, Italy and the United States.

“Ombra was born from the need not to manage everything alone anymore,” says De Pascalis, Founder & Creative Director, describing how his background in creative direction for concerts and live shows evolved into a broader structure.

Today Ombra brings together around 15 people, spanning technical and design roles, and focuses on creative direction for concerts, large-scale events and sports events, covering stage design, lighting, video content and programming. “We aim to connect technology with creativity and storytelling,” Lorenzo De Pascalis explains, framing an approach where narrative becomes a core element of live performance.

Marracash and Ombra: Shaping a Creative Concept Over Time

The collaboration between Ombra and Marracash started several years before the stadium tour, through a creative path developed over time with productions such as Persona Tour and Marrageddon.

“We started working with Fabio three or four years ago, following all his productions over time,” explains Lorenzo De Pascalis

When the opportunity to design a stadium tour connected to the album "È finita la pace" emerged, technology was not the starting point.

“The only thing I knew was that we were going to do stadiums and that the album would be called È finita la pace,” he says.
The creative concept took shape as an evolution of Marracash’s artistic trilogy and its central theme of duality between the man and the artist.

“I wanted to create a strong contrast, something that could literally divide the stage,” Lorenzo De Pascalis explains.

An initial idea of a “garden with robots” gradually evolved into Mind Industries, an imaginary laboratory analysing the conflict between Fabio and Marracash. “In the end, it’s a representation of consciousness,” he adds, describing how the scenography and moving elements become narrative tools, adapting to the emotional tone and meaning of each song.

Robotics as a Narrative Language in Live Entertainment

The introduction of robotics into the creative project emerged naturally from the concept, rather than from a purely technological choice.

“The initial idea was a garden with robots inside,” explains Lorenzo De Pascalis, describing how robotics was conceived from the start as a contrasting and scenographic presence.

As the narrative evolved, this intuition developed into Mind Industries, an imaginary laboratory observing and analysing the artist’s inner conflict. “At a certain point, it became natural to give this entity a physical form,” Lorenzo De Pascalis says, highlighting how the real movement and physical presence of robots opened narrative possibilities that could not be achieved through other means.
Within this framework, robots are not used as simple moving machines, but as active elements of the show.

“We tried to humanize them in a certain way,” Lorenzo De Pascalis explains, referring to interactions built through distance, proximity, confrontation and observation. Robotics becomes an expressive medium, able to interact with music, performers and audience, adapting to the emotional language of each song. “It gave us possibilities we couldn’t have in any other way,” he concludes, showing how industrial robotics, when brought outside its traditional context, can take on a new role in live entertainment.

From Industrial Robotics to Live Entertainment: A Collaboration Opening New Possibilities

The decision to use KUKA industrial robotics stemmed from a long-standing personal interest in robotics rather than from the project alone. “Besides being a creative director, I’m a nerd,” says Lorenzo De Pascalis, referring to his previous experiences with robotic systems across film and live events.

The initial contact with KUKA happened directly and later evolved through Event Robotics, a specialised partner in live robotics integration.

“They put me in touch with Event Robotics, and luckily they did, because everything worked really well,” Lorenzo De Pascalis explains, highlighting the importance of a collaboration built on complementary expertise.
In live entertainment, robotics is still a complex and sometimes challenging element to integrate, but precisely for this reason it can deliver a powerful visual and narrative impact.

“It’s still a bit of a niche,” Lorenzo De Pascalis notes, “but maybe that’s also what makes it interesting, because things need to be discovered and understood.”

The collaboration between KUKA, Event Robotics and Ombra showed how industrial robots can operate reliably even in demanding environments such as stadium tours, while remaining fully aligned with the creative narrative. “I’m happy it wasn’t just a technological integration, but that it made sense within a much larger story,” Lorenzo De Pascalis concludes, reinforcing the idea of robotics as an expressive tool in live entertainment rather than a standalone feature.

When Industrial Robotics Becomes Part of the Show

The project developed by Ombra for Marracash’s stadium tour shows how industrial robotics can move beyond its traditional environment and become part of a complex narrative language.

Through the collaboration between KUKA, Event Robotics and Ombra’s creative team, robots were not treated as mere scenic elements, but as active components within a story shaped over time, interacting with music, performers and audience.

This experience highlights how, when driven by a clear creative vision, technology can expand the boundaries of live entertainment and open new paths for the use of robotics in cultural and creative contexts.