Dreams of a Sovereign Citizen – Chisinau / The Hidden Sphere

The figures that hide, and that disappear into the night; the figures that seek shelter through temporary constructions, hand to hand and undercover; the figures that unfurl threadbare cloths to capture the wind; the ones that disappear, unrecognized, and the ones that drive forward the possibility of future homecomings; the figures that may form into sudden crowds to give way to new formations – of hidden cultures, deep echoes, and that give voice to the making of new languages.

Taking place as a series of creative “drapings” across the city, which gestures towards an idea of the “hidden sphere”, the activity culminates in a collective listening event. The event considers the precariousness and vulnerability of embodied presence, and the joining together that may take place undercover. Taking its cues from recent writings by Judith Butler on the performativity of public assembly, are there other ways of constructing forms of being together, other methods of enacting a social body beyond visibilization? As Butler suggests, the frailty of bodies out of place may provide a base for new formations of association and solidarity, particularly through gestures of hospitality and compassion (which draw out an affective base for caring communities).

Following these questions, the event is an open gathering for posing ideas and performing the formation of a temporary collectivity. Might the experience of collective listening provide the basis for reflecting upon the weaknesses that bind us together? Can the invisibility of a sound assist in nurturing a deep ethics, as well as a social imagination around what it means to be a subject with others?

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