THE FIRST LOVE HAS NO ARCHITECTURE, does a hug have one?*

ANATOMY OF A HUG is a HAPPENING, a somatic session that dissects some of the movements involved in the act of embracing, revealing their architectures. Contrary to what one might imagine, the architecture of a hug is shared by many species, and of course by all of us human animals: its gesture is planetary. Evolution leaves the trace — in our bones — of the multiple encounters between species that, over time, have produced symbiosis and our body as we know it today.

Understood in this way, the gesture of the hug becomes a form of somatic activism that demands a common solidarity, mutual aid, a single collective body capable of being multiple. This multi‑bodied hug is also a new network of rooms, thresholds, and chambers that interweave with the spaces already existing in the House of Encounter with the Other. It is a rhizomatic architecture.

Anatomy of a Hug is also a creative act, the generation of a unique work for each of the attendees.

Anatomy of a Hug took place on July 1st, 2026 at The House of Encounter with the Other, in the Can Framis Museum. The House of Encounter with the Other is a project by the Affective Architectures Foundation and Mauro Gil‑Fournier, part of Barcelona Capitalidad Mundial de la Arquitectura and Barcelona UIA 2026, with the support of Bobochoses.

Thanks to the team formed by Mar Ponce, Oriana Sovieri, Adrián Segura, and María Lledó, and to Mauro Gil‑Fournier for his trust.

*(The opening verse– translated into English– is by Francisco Gálvez. Un Hermoso Invierno, 1981.)