Of a Night. Actions of Asymmetrical Proximity

Of a Night. Actions of Asymmetrical Proximity proposes a reconsideration of friendship from an ecological and interspecies perspective in the Vall de Santa Creu.

This one-day performance programme brings together Lu Chieregati, Anna Cornudella, Javier Peñafiel, and Carme Torrent to explore friendship as an expanded and radical concept that challenges relationships and hierarchies beyond the anthropocentric gaze. The project draws on Spinoza’s notion of joyful encounters and on Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of collective assemblage, bringing these ideas into dialogue with contemporary theories of ecosystems and hybrid kinships developed by Donna Haraway, Vinciane Despret, and Ursula K. Le Guin.

Through body, image, voice, and language, the four interventions merge with the landscape of the Vall de Santa Creu during the passage from late afternoon into a singular summer night, imbued with the disruptive spirit of Puck and Shakespeare’s enchanted forest. Here, the night unfolds not merely as a setting, but as a space-time of transformation and radical interdependence: a permeable territory where climate, plants, living beings, and more-than-human creatures become entangled in collective practices of attention, observation, and asymmetrical proximity. It is a threshold for learning to “become with others” and for remembering, as Ursula K. Le Guin suggested, that the collective bond is the only hand capable of saving us.

Ultimately, Of a Night functions as both a political reflection and an exercise in ecological humility. It offers a form of resistance to the instrumentalisation of our time by fostering affective and artistic ecosystems and proposing new forms of coexistence and kinship through which we may live, survive, and think together.

PROGRAMME

6.00 pm | Lu Chieregati, Floresta. Walking performance with Norma Pérez.

Limited capacity.
Advance booking until 26 August, or until all places are filled: info@arbar.cat

Meeting point: ARBAR entrance.

Audience information:
To take part in the performance, participants must bring a mobile phone and headphones. The audio material will be sent in advance via WhatsApp. Please arrive ten minutes before the performance begins. Suitable walking shoes, sun protection, insect repellent, and something to sit on (such as a scarf, shawl, or towel) are recommended. Please note that mobile phone coverage in the area is very limited.

7.15 pm | Carme Torrent — Meteorologies of Bodies. Choreographic action.
Starting point: Plaça de la Font.

8.00 pm | Javier Peñafiel — Premise and Past. Confedrama and texts.
Starting point: ARBAR entrance.

8.30 pm | Anna Cornudella — Asymmetrical Proximity. Live transmission / video performance.
Starting point: inside ARBAR.

9.15 pm | Conversation with the participating artists.