I was wearing my skin unfresh
immersive musical micro-fiction
We're taking extra time for story time, with a sonic, literary and, it's fair to say, a bit naughty premiere, crafted around a selection of radical, intimate short stories by author Diane Williams, and impassioned letters by composer John Cage to Merce Cunningham. Composer Finbar Hosie offers "I was wearing my skin unfresh" as a series of microdramas for electronics, flute, voice and everything in between, composed in close collaboration with flutist and performer Emiliano Gavito. I was wearing my skin unfresh poses the question of what intimacy, or its absence, is or can be in 2024: its fragments of stories and memories accumulated and woven together in sonic microcosms invite you to cast an indiscreet glance through its windows left agar, at intimate, multifaceted and fleeting glimpses of other lives, situations and scenes that collide.
This show is based on the work of avant-garde writer Diane Williams. An adept of microfiction, she is known for her very short stories that combine a stripped-down approach with enigmatic language, combined with an unconventional and surprising narrative. Williams' subjects, sometimes erotic, sometimes mundane, question the hetero-normative status quo, societal expectations of sexuality in general and the dynamics of power in society or our intimate relationships;
Treated with her characteristic deadpan humour, her microfiction often draws on her own experiences to offer an intimate insight into the human psyche. The reading of William's texts, recorded by the author herself, constitutes a disembodied dialogue and narration, blending with the electro-acoustic and scenic space.
Accompanying these micro-fictions are other intimate impressions, among them sensitive and carnal correspondences between the composer John Cage and his partner, choreographer Merce Cunningham. These love letters, both fragmentary and passionate, began when they first met. Little by little, theygradually lead the audience into a jubilant affection for both their art and their love affair. One a choreographer, the other a composer, the art and love of Cage and Cunningham are inextricably linked.
In the space of just one hour, an immersive installation invites the audience to reflect on themes that affect us all in our daily lives, in our intimacy, but in an open, relaxed space. Finbar Hosie and Emiliano Gavito stage this linguistic and sensual dialogue between the authors and their written 'selves', their lived experiences, and the performer and his own reflection, embodied by an electro-acoustic device, a sonic extension to his acoustic presence. The spoken text and the performer's stage presence and sound blend together, merging in a warm, dreamlike space; the staging combines an amalgam of sheets and beds, an uninhibited reverie with no boundaries between audience and musician. The bed and reading aloud, timeless symbols of sensuality and intimacy that accompany us throughout our lives, are spaces of rest and self-care, allowing us to explore a safe-space reading that adults can enjoy.
conception Finbar Hosie and Emiliano Gavito
composition and staging Finbar Hosie
flute and performance Emiliano Gavito
scenography Gipsy Vazquez and Finbar Hosie
texts Diane Williams and John Cage (with the kind authorisation Diane Williams, Laura Khan and the John Cage Trust.)
coordination Adam Starkie
