Open Presentation:
“CITIES BY NIGHT”

During the open presentation of Cities by Night each of the performers was matched with a single person of the audience who had to follow them in silence and keep a 2 meters distance when walking through the defined path that was unique and not intersected with the others.

The participants, gathered at a meeting point in the district, were given an address where to meet their performer and start the walk. The itinerary was inscribed in a walking time of 20 minutes, during which the audience’s path was accompanied to an audio made up of a collection of thoughts, experiences, prejudices, and other reflections the artist come through when encountering other women in different cities all around Europe.
At the end of the walk, the performer drew a demarcation line with a chalk on the pavement to define the limit of her secure zone and showed the participants a sentence in her hand: “My city ends here”. From there on the participant was left alone to decide if going back to the meeting point or go back home.

The project resulted in a general change of perspectives, both for the performers and the audience. The women who took part in it, whose involvement was supported by the local association Donne al traguardo, finally felt part of a small community, managed to challenge their fears, overcome their negative perceptions when walking alone and perceived the district as dangerous no more. As for the participants, the women felt more secure and recognized themselves in the stories accompanying their walks, while the men felt really uncomfortable and only partially realized how scary it can be for women to walk alone in the night.