Festival and the City: Performativity of Sexual acts in public spheres

In this paper, we address the perception of sexual activities in public spaces and how they become aesthetic, social and cultural intervention once expressed through and embodied within performative events (theatre, street performance, carnival, festival, rave etc). A substantial amount of research has been done on the relation between sexuality and gender about public spaces, and influence of civic and urban identity on public expression of sexuality and gender. We will look at the invented rituals establishing sexuality within a context of performativity through relationships with public spaces. As the case studies, we will use the works of theatre companies La Fura dels Baus and Teatro Oficina. To set up the set of relationships between inside and outside, we will borrow a useful concept on ‘spheres' from the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk to look at the public space as a system of spheres where a different set of rules apply enabling actions to take place. These performances in urban contexts, as well as some festivals and particularly carnivals, become a way of the staging of sexual acts in public space, in opposition to the dominant narrative of private – domestic space. We will look at how collectiveness and civic spaces become essential elements of this phenomenon and its relevance in our contemporary reality as an element of subversion of social structures. We will also examine performative events where sexual acts as a language of human relationship in public spaces bringing intimacy