The occasion? Cilla Vee, a "motion sculpture installation festival," brought to you — free — by the alternative arts collective Chashama.

The fest takes place in the same area where the group has been staging its annual Oasis arts festival for the past two weeks.

In that series, 40 acts (music, dance, performance art) were performed in a storefront window, beguiling and confusing the office workers and tourists who rushed by.

This week, part of the thrill will consist in the bizarre interaction between the empty storefront, where the public is invited to sit and watch the performers — both indoors and out — and the life of the street.

The mastermind behind it is Claire Elizabeth Barratt, who in recent years could be seen standing for hours in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in a state of statuesque stillness, draped in the flowing robes of ancient gods.

In a published statement, she described her Cilla Vee Movement Projects as "a multi-disciplinary performing arts company designed to explore ways in which movement, as a performance art form, can go beyond the anticipated format of standard dance choreography."

To that end, she has planned five differently themed events, one for each workday this week.

Today's installation is called "Between Ma and a Soft Space," named for the Japanese word meaning "the silence between sounds, the space between shapes and the stillness between movements."

Breaking the stillness will be music from the microtonal guitar of David Beardsley, and live gesture drawings and video projection by Lara Hanson.

Tomorrow's event, "Gold Leaf," features a sitarist and a band called Joyful Sonic Wash, and will involve the spinning of webs out of gold thread.

Far less contemplative promises to be Wednesday's "Carmen Miranda Tropical Installation," described as "vibrant, lush and exotic," with plants, flowers and baskets brimming with fruit. There'll also be music by the incongruously named Yukijurushi Bossa Nova Band; artist Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz will make live paintings.

On Thursday, in an event titled "Human Clay," the sculptor Hisayasu Takashio promises to construct landscapes out of human bodies, together with rope and twisted tree branches. Sabine Arnaud and Marianne Giosa will be making music as well as live gesture drawings.

Perhaps most inspiring of all will be Friday's event, "From the Deep," which will feature a whirlpool of sea creatures and water spirits, as well as a "mystical" jazz improvisation from Daniel Carter and Marianne Giosa and art by Peter Shapiro.

If Cilla Vee lives up to Chashama's last festival, it will be one more reason why Manhattan is the best place to be in summer.