As part of the programme of activities during the exhibition Food: The Utopia of Proximity at Bòlit Contemporary Art Centre and curated by Harold Berg, Eudald Camps & Carme Sais, Ocells al Cap were invited to recreate Carol Gooddens’s performance Raindrop Dance, first performed in 1971 at 112 Greene Street, New York. After almost exactly 50 years to the day, Ocells al Cap presented their version of the work on the 12 May 2021 at the Teatre Municpal in Girona, followed by a discussion with the audience.

Telepathic essence: As part of our ongoing investigation into extrasensory communication we asked for a volunteer member of the audience to write down a question on a piece of paper and to fold it up without showing it to us or the audience. We also asked for another volunteer to write down everything they saw during the performance on another sheet of paper. At the end of the performance the two volunteers read out what they had written; first the obvservations and lastly the question. A discussion with the audience ensued about whether or not the question had been answered by the performance.

Photos: Max Wyse

Between Us was performed just after lockdown in 2021. Only a few of the group could take part and the performance was made in a park in Celrà as part of the events to make International Women’s Day organised by Cultural Rizoma and the Ajuntament de Celrà.

The artists asked a volunteer in the audience to think of a question and to write it down on a paper that was kept secret until later. The group respond to each question with an improvised peformance using the objects they have previously brought with them. Another volunteer from the audience writes down everything they see during the improvised answer to the unseen question. Afterwards the volunteers read , first the witness and then the question. The group discusses what has happened with the audience

During their residency in September 2020 at L’Animal a l’Esquena, Celrà, Ocells al Cap invited a group of artists who were unable to come in person because of the COVID19 pandemic, to take part in a series of performance duets at a distance from their countries. The artists from afar were projected onto a large screen via internet, while the artists present at the residency stood with their back to the screen and with their eyes shut.

The artists performed simultaneously and the works were observed for synchronicities. There were multiple moments when the artists seem to be completely in tune with each other and others when they seem to be a reflection of each other.

The participating artists were: Lesley Yendell, Natàlia Espinet, Mireia Zantop, Nieves Correa, Pauline Cummings, Martine Viale, Marina Barsy, Denys Blacker, Juliette Murphy, Montse Seró, Isa Fontbona, Anna Subirana, Paloma Orts, Mar Ximenis.

https://vimeo.com/694055225

Tentacular Thinking was presented at La Casa de la Paraula in Santa Coloma de Farners on the 2nd February 2019. The participating artists were: Denys Blacker, Juliette Murphy, Mireia Zantop, Lesley Yendell, Paloma Orts, Melina Peña and Ada Vilaró.

The audience are asked to talk together and to decide on an important question. They are given 15 minutes to discuss this and the artists leave the gallery so as not to hear. They have to find a way to agree to one question only. The question is hidden from view and the artists return and make a group improvisation.

At the end, the question is read and a discussion takes place about what happened in the performance in relation to the question.

We Were Waiting for You was presented at Santa Llucia, Bòlit Contemporary Art Centre in Girona on the 2nd September 2018. The participating artists were: Montse Seró, Anna Subirana, Denys Blacker, Sabina Vilagut, Juliette Murphy, Paloma Orts, Lesley Yendell, Ayako Zushi, Mireia Zantop and Marina Barsy.

As the members of the public entered the church, the artists are standing in a line. Behind them is one of the group who will fix her eyes on one of the back of one of the artists at a time and try to imagine that she is literally touching that person with their “eyes that touch”. If someone feels that they are being touched they lift their hand. Sometimes they are right sometimes they are wrong.

The audience was invited to participate by asking an important question for our times. Those who wished to ask a question sit one by one at the table where they write down their question on a paper and hide it from sight. One of the artists then sits next to the questioner at the table to write down what they see in the improvisation. The artists then make an improvised reply to each question. Those who feel moved to move take part, those that don’t, remain still. After they have finished, the question is read to the audience and a discussion takes place about how relevant the action was to the question.

Half way through the evening the electricity failed and the audience lit the space with their mobile phones.

We Were Waiting for You was presented at the Mediterranean Museum in Toroella de Montgri on the 30th June 2018. The participating artists were: Mar Serinya, Denys Blacker, Lesley Yendell, Marta Vergonyós, Ada Vilaró, Melina Peña and Mireia Zantop.

The Oracle was presented at Al Jardí in Cadaquès on the 2nd July 2017. The participating artists were: Helen Collard, Marta Vergonyós, Denys Blacker, Nuria Iglesias, Montse Seró, Martine Viale, Sandra Johnston and Mar Serinyá. Photos by Jordi García Moriel.

In The Oracle, the audience were asked to write down a question that was important to them or that they were curious to have an answer for, and to hide the paper from the view of the artists. The artists then began to improvise with objects that they have brought with them. The person who has made the question takes notes and one of the group (who doesn’t know the question ) also takes notes. At the end of the improvisation the texts are read and the audience comment on the content. As usual, the only rule is that the artists can only move when moved by an inner conviction to move and otherwise to remain still.

The Sense of Being Stared at was presented on the 19th April 2016 at the  international theatre festival Sismográf in Olot in 2016 as part of a durational collaborative work with the artist Ada Vilaró. In the work, four members of the group (Mireia Zantop, Lesley yendell, Paloma Orts and Denys Blacker), stood with their backs to Vilaró, who was seated at a short distance behind us.

During the two-hour durational work, Ada was instructed to fix her gaze on the back of one of the group at a time for a short duration. This was to be done in silence and with no visual contact with her and the artists. If and when they felt her gaze was fixed on them, they would raise a hand as a sign. She then marked down the times that this coincided with her actually looking at that person. The effect on the audience was mesmeric. The group appeared to be raising and lowering our hands in a choreographed way. From the audience’s point of view, the work was aesthetically pleasing but also hypnotically captivating. some of the people stayed for the full two hours to watch.

Interestingly, the majority of times that someone raised their hand they were in fact being watched by Ada. this came as a surprise, although they coincided in their experience of, at times, having had a physical sensation of being touched on the back while they were being looked at. There was also a particular moment during the piece when they all lost concentration to such a degree that they began to look at each other. Finally someone turned
to look at Ada, only to find that she had taken a break. They had felt her absence although they hadn’t seen her leave. They may have heard her leave unconsciously, but as the performance was on the street and there were many people walking by that would have been very difficult. Important qualities described by the artists after the performance were; mutual trust, knowing, agreement, confidence, open structure, non-conditional, unifying, political freedom, respect, empathy, determination and practice.

The Sense Of Being Stared At is taken from the title of a book and of an on-going investigation into telepathy, directed by the renowned british biologist Rupert Sheldrake that has been running since the 1980s. Sheldrake has been researching the apparent human ability to know when someone is looking at you even though you don’t have visual contact with that person. Many people have had the experience of feeling that someone is staring at them from behind, and on turning round to check, have been able to verify that indeed someone was looking directly at them. it is also common for the opposite to happen; a person reporting that they have the ability to make another person turn around by staring at them from behind. Sheldrake, in his paper The Sense Of Being Stared At, published in the Journal of Consciousness Studies (JCS), states that in Europe and North America, between 70% and 98% of the people questioned, admitted to having had this experience. This phenomenon now has a scientific name; “scopaesthesia” from the greek word skopein, to look at, and aesthesis, sensation. over the last 30 years or more, Sheldrake has carried out thousands of trials that consistently show significant results to support his claims about this strange human ability.

Even though these experiments have been conducted following rigorous scientific methodology, there is harsh criticism of his research. He has been called a heretic, his work dubbed paranormal and attempts have even been made to discredit the way his experiments are conducted. The American neuroscientist Christof Koch refused to comment on Sheldrake’s paper on the subject, answering the invitation to peer review it in a letter saying, ‘I think it is a waste of time’. Sheldrake’s work has been controversial for many years. In 1981, John Maddox, the editor of Nature magazine titled his review of Sheldrake’s book, ‘A New Science of Life, a book for burning?’.This is a field of research that inspires deep resistance and prejudice. Sheldrake has noted that his most vehement critics are also atheists.

Sceptisism is healthy when the facts are examined beforehand, but many of his critics refuse to even look at the evidence. Why is this so? What is it that makes for such extreme reactions?

This group improvisation was presented at La_Carbonera, Bòlit Contemporary Art Centre in Girona on the 28th November 2015 during the International artists residency organised by FEM International Meeting of Women Performance Artists. The participating artists were: Anet Van de Elzen, Mireia Zantop, Denys Blacker, Harriet Plewis, Natàlia Espinet, Anita Ponton, Ada Vilaró, Mar Serinyá and Montse Seró. The performance was followed by a discussion with the audience.

The group Ocells al Cap came together for the first time in 2014 when Marta Vergonyós and Denys Blacker were invited by the Fundació Antoni Tàpies (Barcelona) and the Women’s Cultural Centre la Bonne (Barcelona) to make a performance for the exhibition about Allan Kaprow’s work called ‘Otras Maneras‘ curated by Soledad Gutiérrez. They invited a group of women artists to make a reinvention of Allan Kaprow’s work ‘The Birds’, renaming it ‘Birds in the Head’. The participating artists were: Denys Blacker, Mar Serinyá, Marta Vergonyós, Mireia Zantop, Ada Vilaró, Natàlia Espinet, Clara Garí, Paloma Orts, Montse Seró, Nuria Iglesias, Nina Orteu, Lesley Yendell and Sue Blacker.