As the year of Restful City draws to a close, I can proudly reel off a string of wins: 

• Bristol Old Vic have created a permanent resting space on the balcony level of their foyer. It is a super comfy spot with a beautiful rug, bean bags, pillows and a written invitation to drop social etiquette and do what you need to do to make yourself comfortable in that space. This is only the second permanent Resting Space at a UK theatre. 
• Arnolfini ran a Horizontal Event during their exhibition ‘Forest: Wake this Ground.’ For this event we met in the galleries at twilight on an autumn evening. A closed event - like ‘A Night at the Museum’, the invitation was to rest and linger with the art. Arnolfini special programme manager Phil Owen later said “this is Arnolfini at its best.”
• This will be the second dedicated Horizontal Cinema event that we run with Watershed, who created Horizontal Cinema back in 2019 in response to stories about people’s attempts to rest in public that I gathered for a piece called A Crash Course in Cloudspotting. 

I knew we were unlikely to shift the culture of the city in a year, but hoped to make some ripples towards normalising rest and horizontality in public space. I’ve been heartened to see rest events becoming more frequent - in February Roseanna Dias of Studio Susegad ran Sweet Rest, an event that centred collective rest and care, and read extracts of Tricia Hersey’s Rest as Resistance. In March, Genevieve Cameo, Cube Volunteer and Producer ran Spoonie Rave at Cube Cinema. They’d attended a Horizontal Cinema event and wanted to create something similar at the Cube with live music. This 60 person capacity event sold out. 

It feels like there is an appetite for these events and for opportunities to gather together in public, in new ways. To reach a critical mass and tip the scales towards totally normalising rest, we probably just need mates and allies to come and lie down with us. So I really hope to see you there. 

Horizontal Event at Watershed on Tue 4 April 12:00

Raquel Meseguer Zafe’s project Towards a Restful City asks Bristol venues to extend a warm welcome to chronically ill communities to attend, and inhabit our shared spaces in new ways. Horizontal Events are experiments in different ways of being together in public, welcoming rest and horizontality as ways of being in the world. 

For this event, Watershed have invited us to inhabit the cinema in the most comfortable way possible, for a private screening of The Five Devils.

Vicky, is a solitary little girl, with a magical gift: she can reproduce any scent she likes, and collects them in a series of carefully labelled jars. Vicky has secretly captured the scent of Joanne, her mother for whom she nurtures a wild, excessive love.

When her father’s sister Julia bursts into their life, Vicky reproduces her smell and is transported into dark and archaic memories which lead her to uncover the secrets of her village, her family and her own existence.

Book your ticket for this Horizontal Cinema screening (click on Horizontal Cinema for a lying down space). 

Access

• Yoga mats, cushions and bean bags will be available. 
• The event will have a maximum of 12 lying down spaces. These will be allocated to the first 12 people who choose ‘Horizontal Seating’ when booking. 
• The event will be capped at 40 attendees. 
• We can cover some local taxi travel for disabled attendees, please email uncharteredcollective@gmail.com if taxi travel would support you in attending the screening. 
• Please note all tickets for this event include a companion ticket. 
• This will be a minimally scented event, to make it possible for people with chemical sensitivities to attend.

If you have any questions about the booking process please email Raquel at uncharteredcollective@gmail.com

Guidelines

In order to protect others, before attending a Horizontal Cinema event we ask that you follow these guidelines:

• Please take a Lateral Flow Test before attending (you can pick up a single tests from £1.89 at your local pharmacy). There will also be lateral flow tests available at the venue if you should need one.
• Please wash your hands before and after the screening and use the available hand gel frequently.
• Do Not attend if you show Covid symptoms
• Do Not attend if you display symptoms of cold, flu, or a new cough.

See more information about Towards a Restful City here.