Lunchtime Concert – AIRE

Performers: Dr Óscar Mascareñas and Tony Monahan

AIRE is an invitation to sit and listen. A conversation beyond words
through shared sound, silence and space. AIRE (from the Irish
‘attention’) is a practice, developed by Óscar Mascareñas and Tony
Monahan, that has its origins in the idea of inter-being (promoted
by Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh), and is grounded
in observation through silence, stillness and sound. It is a practice of
silence. But not always silent. Of observing (in) silence. But not always
silently. An action of poetry, towards poetry. From/in/into stillness.

Not entirely an acoustic practice (John Cage – ‘silence is not acoustic,
it is a change of mind, a turning around’), it is centred in attention, it
is a space for recognising the inter-connection and inter-being of all
things. AIRE is observing as one practices observation. It beckons
one to behold.

Tony Monahan is a guitarist, composer, producer and educator
exploring the connection between space and the free-flowing
sounds of our surroundings.