q-sputnik

I went to the Wild Park at Moulsecomb last night and had a multi-sensory experience with the ‘Periplum with the World famous The Bell‘, which, for those who missed it, is repeated tonight. There is no way one person or small party of people, can have the same experience as another in this kind of event. Begginning with the way you reach the place the event takes place: I went there on bike departing from Norfolk square, crossed the city centre and the hordes of drunk pedestrians through north rd, then on the fake-bike-mostly-pavement-road on the right of the Victoria gardens to reach lewes rd. Riding along my friend was hard firstly because of the people walking all over, secondly cause we only had a front light and a back light for two bikes.

We had to meet three friends at Wild park who were going there by car but being late as ever, we missed each other in the dark and crowded lawns. Buses were aggressive, unusual numbers of 49 buses were really eager to reach the venue on time and were sticking their smelly fronts behind my back to rush me out when approaching bus stops. Nevertheless, many people walked there from some point after and it was beautiful to see people walking together towards the unknown.

The ‘promenade performance’ meant that the centre of audience attention shifted between considerable distances in space and one would better walk along to get the most of it. I did it for a while but there are limitations to where and how you can get to the spot you want each moment because of the rest of the people around you who also want to get to their ideal spot. So I went up to the small hill on the right were the grass is 30cm high and humid and managed to grasp a slightly more complete idea of the sound, smell, narrative, image.

What was missing for this experience to encompass all senses and claim maximum satisfaction is taste. And i don’t mean this metaphorically, on the contrary. Having grown in a country were outdoor art events and theatre in particular are an everyday summer practice, I missed the smell and taste of freshly prepared candy on stick (which I haven’t seen in this country so i do not know the name of it) and barbecued corn that, even though I understand are not exactly what the anchient greeks used to provide, they do however echo the paradigm of ‘bread and events’ (that keeps citizens content and away from thoughts of overthrowing regiments).

To be sure, having any kind of food or beverage provided in the event described would spoil the free character of it and would certainly bring consuming hues to it, let alone the garbage afterwards. Nevertheless, even though one comes to appreciate cultural events according to lived experiences of the past and the new experience is limited to generic expectations(a walking outdoor performance), the way space and spatial relations are negotiated in such events always has an element of surprise that adds to the satisfaction.

post-publishing thoughts: I re-read the post trying to be critical about my able-ism. I kind of undersatnd the preference of the word ‘promenade’ to ‘walking’ which seemed strange to me at first. ‘Promenade’ is more like ’strolling’ which does not suggest the need of feet, it is more ‘βόλτα’ in greek. Apart from my repeated use of the word ‘walking’, I talk about the combination of all senses -and even more actually-in order to achieve maximum satisfaction, as if just being there and listening or just smelling or just seeing or just feeling the random touch of people around you (if you can tolerate that) or sensing the grass and mud would not be satisfactory enough. Which makes me reflect on how spoiled I am, asking for more. The other thing is how far I appreciated the word ‘free’ (without limitations) used in the brighton Festival catalog, that I actually used on my title. And that’s all I can spot now.