Tracing Memories: Works by Aki Onda

Join us at e-flux on Friday, March 6 at 7pm for a live performance by Aki Onda with Zach Rowden. Onda will present two pieces: Cassette Solo and Spirit Known and Unknown (Petit), followed by a discussion with e-flux Performance Curator Sanna Almajedi. 

Cassette Solo is an ongoing performance project based on Onda’s collection of thousands of cassette recordings amassed over the last three decades. By physically manipulating Walkmans and reconstructing the concrete sounds they hold, Onda stages a performative séance in which the tapes are attuned not just to the sonic but also to the mnemonic. This performance was recently presented at the 13th Seoul Mediacity Biennale Séance: Technology of the Spirit. Onda’s Spirits Known and Unknown is also an ongoing project featuring found brass bells that draws from different associations of bells throughout various cultures: as symbols of spirituality, peace, and even in some cases, war. In Onda’s words: “playing bells can be eerie at times. I get the sensation that ringing them connects me to their former owners who may have rung them. The actions recall lost sounds and sense histories that would otherwise be erased. It’s like collaborating with forces such as spirits and ancestors which transcends the sense of time and space….” 

Aki Onda is an artist, composer, and curator currently based in Mito, Japan, after living in New York for two decades. Onda’s works are often catalyzed by and structured around memories—personal, collective, historical—such as his widely known project, Cassette Memories (2004–ongoing), drawn from three decades of field recordings. Onda have presented their work at The Kitchen, MoMA, MoMA P.S.1, Blank Forms, REDCAT, documenta 14, Louvre Museum, Pompidou Center, Palais de Tokyo, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Nam June Paik Art Center, Seoul Mediacity Biennale, among other institutions.

Zach Rowden is a musician, archivist and educator based in New Haven, Connecticut. His work focuses on drone, harmonic (in)stability, repetitive structures and noise. Collaborators and projects include Tongue Depressor, Hyperion Ensemble (Iancu Dumitrescu), Windscour, Lead Mask, Red Yellow Blue Green Black, Leila Bordreuil, and Paul Flaherty.

The program of sound performances at e-flux is curated by Sanna Almajedi.

For more information, please contact program@e-flux.com.

Accessibility           
–Two flights of stairs lead up to the building’s front entrance at 172 Classon Avenue.
–For elevator access, please RSVP to program@e-flux.com. The building has a freight elevator which leads into the e-flux office space. Entrance to the elevator is nearest to 180 Classon Ave (a garage door). We have a ramp for the steps within the space.        
–e-flux has an ADA-compliant bathroom. There are no steps between the event space and this bathroom.