From September 4th to 23rd L'animal a l'esquena will organize and host in the city of Girona the second encounter of the international project Sites of Imagination, in partnership with Alkantara (Lisbon), Bunker (Ljubljana), Carovana (Cagliari) and L'Officina (Marseille), and the opening of the pieces produced by the different artistic teams.

The ideal city has been a recurrent theme in Mediterranean imagination and intellectual tradition, a constant in this tradition is the notion that the ideal city should be constructed according to the proportions and needs of the human body.
Almost diametrically opposed to this imaginary utopian city, exists another city: the city of human activity, the organisation and occupation of space before and beyond the geometric occupations of city planners. The city that organically grows and adapts itself to ever changing human necessities.
As urban textures grow more complex and their planification is being handed over to politicians and specialists – sociologists, architects, city planners, mobility experts, real estate agents,...- 'free' space shrinks and individual creativity in the use of public and private space diminishes.
The idea of new cities comes with a promise that is to replace the present with a future that pretends to offer a new-look to the present. But usually cities would not surrender easily to any new project that aspires to rebuild them, they resist and at times they succeed to stop or at least change the projects.
While looking for the ideal city, have we lost individual imagination and creativity?

Five teams of theatre directors, choreographers, performers, musicians, writers, video and sound artists from a diversity of Mediterranean cities, locations and cultures are invited to Girona and its surroundings to finish develop and produce five different pieces of artwork based on concepts, maps, itineraries, relationships and experiences about the contemporary city and the ideal city.
The 25 participants of Sites of Imagination have already met in Lisbon in May, and since then the 5 teams have been working on different locations and exchanges across the Mediterranean: from Lisbon, Cagliari and Celrà to Beirut, and from Cagliari to Istanbul on a continuous journey. Since Lisbon, other artists and collaborators have been invited to participate in the different teams, so Girona will be the location where all the participants of the five teams will be together working and producing each piece. For this occasion L'animal a l'esquena has invited the dance maker Maria Muñoz (Mal Pelo, Celrà) and the theatre maker Espe López (Legaleon Teatro, Irun) to observe and assist on the development of the work of each team.

The program of Sites of Imagination will be performed, both the 20th and the 21st of September, in the form of an itinerary between the Cultural Centre La Mercè and the Chapel of Santa Llucia in Girona.
At midnight on Friday 21st., L'animal a l'esquena will be the location for a final and simple event for all the participants and invited guests.
On the 23rd. Sites of Imagination will depart from Girona and tour Marseille, Lisbon, Cagliari and Ljubljana.

The program of Sites of Imagination in Girona, will also include other activities open to the public at the Cultural Centre La Mercè, from 19th to 22nd September:
Two video programs 'à la carte': from the Ashkal Alwan archive curated by its founder and director Christine Tohme, and from the OVNI archive in Barcelona curated by the video artist Toni Serra.
Ashkal Alwan – The Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts is a non profit arts organization based in Beirut – Lebanon since 1994, aiming to initiate and promote critical artistic practices; and to document and build an archival record of contemporary intellectual and creative activity. Their activities include a wide range of projects, work in public spaces, creation of networks and partnerships for reflection, dialogue and exchange.
OVNI – The Observatory Archives are structured around particular themes and have a clear purpose: to encourage a critique of contemporary culture, using different strategies: video art, independent documentary, and mass media archeology. The Archives cover a huge range of works that are very different from one another, but share a commitment to freedom of expression and reflect on our collective fears and pleasures.

One photo exhibition from Lebanon: 'Abandoned rooms' by the visual artist Randa Mirza. 'Abandoned rooms' is a series about fragmented lives, lives that are stuck between the reality of the changeover and the haunting ghost of the war. They speak of the past in the present, of presence in absence, of death and survival, of what is forgotten and what lingers, of what rots and is transformed in a country that keeps rising from its ruins.