2015: Greeting the Golden Hour

In 2012, the Art Monastery began an 8 year cycle, taking one year at a time to research and draw inspiration from traditional monastic rituals correlating with different hours of the day. This has been much written about in previous blog posts. Follow the links throughout for more on previous individual years’ investigations. Click here for more on the Monastic Cycle in general.

2012 was a year of explorations into the Midnight Hour: themes of voidspace, death, a time called “Vigils” in western monasticism. In 2013 we focused on the Pre-Dawn: 3am liminal space, “Lauds.” 2014 was Dawn, sunrise, “Prime.”

Now 2015 we have arrived at the mid-morning, “Terce.” (pronounced Ter-che, related to the latin root of our word “three,” — the third hour of daylight).

Full, bright morning sun. Our personal, experiential research and investigations still lie ahead of us, but we’re already connecting this mid-morning time with South-East, the sweetness and richness of late springtime. In Shambhala Buddhism, this is the time that get a clear look at the “Great Eastern Sun.” In Christian liturgical language, it’s referred to as the hora aurea — “The Golden Hour.”

This summer in Italy, August and September will be a two month Art Monastic Laboratory organized around exactly this. As a group we will decide how to best spend this Golden Hour in our communal schedule, possibly with contemplation, solo time, group improvisations, or social brunches.

What is this time of day? Our work as ArtMonks will be to translate that question into a collaboratively created interdisciplinary performance. The final process may not read explicitly as a show about mid-morning–we may end up far from this idea, or close to it, but this is where we will begin. Further research into the stories, myths, and truths around this hour, combined with personal experience and inspiration will guide our table work. From there, music, movement, and stories will tumble forward, and collectively we will take the most interesting path, letting the show develop from what is truly in our hearts.