Ocells al Cap were invited in 2024 by the arts centre Santa Monica in Barcelona to curate three evenings of performance in the season of events Dimecres de So I Cos (Sound and Body on Wednesdays). This performance took place on the third evening (23rd October 2024). This meeting was dedicated to Lesley Yendell, our great friend and colleague on the 4th anniversary of her death in 2020. Her husband Lucho Hermosilla also took part by offering a performance at the start of the evening.

We began the performance by inviting the audience to participate in a breathing exercise. We chanted together “the six healing sounds” and the vibrations felt in the body put us in the same frequency. For the preparation of the performance, each artist in the group had previously selected six objects that they brought to the performance in a bag. We asked the audience if anyone would like to write down a question they might have at this moment in their lives. The question could be personal, universal or very specific. The volunteer Consultant then wrote their question on a piece of paper and hid it from view. It was not seen by artists or the public. The Consultant was asked to send the question by telepathy to the artists. The artists responded by improvising with their objects and with the other artists. The Consultant sat at a table with a paper and pen and an artist at by their side (the Scribe). They both write down on the paper everything they see, without thinking too much, just responding to what is happening in the performance as it unfolds. It is a style of writing that due to its immediacy, seems more like automatic writing or stream of consciousness. At the end of each improvisation the texts were read out loud and finally the Consultant shared their question. We looked for meaningful interconnections between what had happened in the performance, what was written down by the Consultant and the Scribe and the content of the question. The public shared their views and observations with the artists.

The artists who participated were: Anna Subirana, Juliette Murphy, Martine Viale, Helen Collard, Denys Blacker, Toni Crabb, Natàlia Espinet, Mireia Zantop and Bernadette Hopkins,

The photos were taken by Claudia Serrahima