Je te laisserai dormir de mon côté du lit is an evolving, performative, and installation-based co-creation project by the collective Nokta (Blanche Crotti, Capucine Destoc, Dadoo Frison, and me).

It begins with a series of questions: How is intimacy exposed? How do we define it? Can we appropriate someone else’s intimacy? From these inquiries, an idea emerged: What if we allowed ourselves to be explored, to document our respective environments, and to exchange apartments for a night?

Trusting another. Making oneself vulnerable. Creating in a foreign space. Becoming intruders. Encountering the intimacy of another. Inhabiting the unfamiliar. Finding one’s place. This experience embodies all of these at once.

First Chapter

Following a random draw, we agreed on the following exchange:

• Dadoo would sleep at Julie’s.

• Julie would sleep at Blanche’s.

• Blanche would sleep at Capucine’s.

• Capucine would sleep at Dadoo’s.

From the data collected during this experience, we created a reappropriated space; presented as an installation prototype at Amalgame (Université de Montréal, 2024). The installation consisted of a bed and bedside table enclosed by curtains, with videos, photos, texts, and audio recordings from our explorations filling the space with a hybridized intimacy. Visitors were invited to lie down and immerse themselves in this layered experience.

Second Chapter

We now propose expanding this research-creation project by pushing the experiment beyond the limits of the known—spending nights in the homes of strangers. This process will continue to unfold, further exploring intimacy, trust, and displacement. The resulting installation will be presented at the University of Montreal Gallery from March 20 to June 14, 2025.