SECRET DINNER PARTY
There is a tram stop in front of the entrance to the Barcelona Zoo in Wellington Street. Be there at 20.00 tomorrow evening.
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These are the instructions that I receive in an e-mail from a certain Mr. Frank. He also informs me that I am one of only twenty fortunate individuals that have been invited to attend the first secret supper organized outside of New York City.
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Mr. Frank is a veteran of this type of event. Atypical social gatherings in extraordinary venues. In fact, they are venues that you are normally prohibited from entering. Eva, the friend who put me in contact with Mr. Frank, lives in Brooklyn. There, she says, secret suppers are very popular. They started in 2006 as a refined response to the rave party phenomenon. The focus of a supper is not the guests but the location. Events have been held in abandoned metro tunnels, old factories, or ancient buildings on city outskirts. None of the guests know beforehand where they will be going.
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We board a tram heading towards Badalona. When Mr. Frank asks us to get off all becomes clearer. We find ourselves in front of three power station chimneys in the Sant Adrià de Besòs district just north of Barcelona. The night sky is blue and the clouds, reflecting the last natural light of the day, have turned pink. We gaze up incredulously at the motionless cement bipeds that tower 200 metres above us. The post-modern atmosphere makes me feel as if I am in Blade Runner.
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Text by IR
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Translation by Richard Thompson