With the involvement of Xabacu, Lydia Zimmerman, Fiona Fell, Julia Aurora Guzmán, Maarten Renes & Zoe Velzi

Sant Jordi is a Catalan holiday which commemorates the death of Cervantes and Shakespear. It is called the day of books and roses. At CasCaDas, we refocused this day to a performative act involving our neighbours, community and fellow artists. A day-long ritual of reading was carried out inside our two vitrines which functioned as performance membranes between the inside and outside street. Extended activities combined readings from selected texts, and came together to form an experimental discourse between the spectators and the performers. Conclusively, the vitrines remained with the aftermath of the performance for 2 weeks.

It’s Saturday morning 23 April 2022. Thousands hit the streets of Barcelona to defy the uninviting weather forecast and increasingly threatening sky to celebrate Catalonia's patron saint day buying and gifting books and roses. Amidst this hustle and bustle, the Cascadas crew opts for a silent-reading performance in the display windows of its premises in the Raval neighbourhood. Far from the madding crowd and yet close, the readers have chosen their novels and take turns exhibiting their act of reading, immersed in personal worlds of wonder, seemingly oblivious to the ignorance, surprise, engagement, disengagement and disbelief of the many pedestrians that cross the street and look in. Some walk by without acknowledgement; others stop and either smile their consent or show lack of comprehension or disapproval; yet others raise their hands and give their support to our irreverent act of reading in public. The bright morning sun turns sour and a darkening afternoon ushers in storms that add a Gothic vibe to the glass cages that lodge us, Cascadeans, from the tempests outside. Hail knocks on our rounded glass panes. Hail beats the rhythm of our hearts. Hail punctuates our narratives. Hail marks the turning of our pages. Hail Sant Jordi. Hail our stories. Mission accomplished.
~ Maarten Renes