The Decameron / Na Deich Lá departs from Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th century book of short stories. Set within a frame story wherein ten young people flee to a villa outside Florence in order to escape the Black Death pandemic, it takes place over the course of ten days and ten nights, during which they eat, play games, sing, play music and tell stories to pass the time.
In this new work, the ten protagonists and frame story are relocated to a contemporary ‘co-living’ development where they ‘live, work and play’ together. Aimed at a young, affluent and globally transient workforce, co-living developments function to normalise housing crises in an age of loneliness by redefining the concept of home and living. Through focusing on experience and convenience over space and privacy, living becomes a service that is provided and the concept of a stable home is replaced by home as a subscription.
The Decameron / Na Deich Lá was made covertly while the artist stayed as a resident at a co-living development, and the characters and plot lines were developed through a series of Character-Based Improvisation workshops. The ten protagonists move from room to room, engaging with props and each other within the improvised set of the development’s spaces. Shot on site and entirely on iPhone, the work combines scripted and contingent elements and draws on a range of motifs, themes and tropes from literature, television, theatre, self-help guides, social media and advertising, among other sources.
