Ioan, a dear friend, left Japan recently.
Ioan is not only a friend, but for me and many others he is also a real reference point in Tokyo’s community. He has a gift to find the most surreal spots in the city, which he always captures with humor during his adventures. If I wanted to meet old friends from all corners of the world, I could go to Ioan Mojito Hanami in Yoyogi park, and get surprised at how small the world is in one of the biggest cities on Earth.
Now he continues his journey in Switzerland, his hometown. He told me he was doing a farewell party in Bonobo, and I immediately asked him if I could do something to say goodbye. Ioan has been a member of Unbound (our beloved event) from the early days, and has always supported our crazy ideas. I am sad, but also very happy I got to organize one more party together. In Bonobo, our spiritual home, halfway Star Wars cantina, halfway Shrine.
And what would I do?
Recently, I have been thinking about performing quite a bit, and I grew apart from the concept.
I want to explore. I want to understand how people transform. And I want to transform myself with others. Not because I think the world needs to change. More as in, I want to participate in how the world develops and I want to do it wholeheartedly. I want to see the process from the inside, to touch it.
This probably doesn’t make much sense. It doesn’t make much sense for me either, and that’s precisely why doing a show right now sounds like a distraction.
But the day came and we did something. I asked my dear friend Bell to come with me and create something together.
But then I had an idea. I wanted Ioan to be part of the act.
Which means he could not see it. I told him I would write this so he can know what happened.
I don’t like art to be explained, much less by the artist. So take this as a mere description.
What we did
Bonobo is a small venue, a Japanese detached house with two floors.
Bell was sitting on the table that I prepared as an altar.
She waited sitting down, her face covered with a red cloth. The music started, our friend Vincent was playing a slow set perfect to fall into a trance state.
I set up a red light and went towards Bell. I made a small dress with ropes, uncovered her face, and sat down by her side.
Then Bell left the table and went to bring Ioan. We asked him to sit and take Bell’s place.
Then, I stood up and covered his crossed legs with a black fabric.
This requires a detour, because the elements are part of the story.
Last year Unbound in Womb was our most ambitious event. The topic was Mandala, from the point of view of Tibetan Buddhism. Our friend Garen painted sixty meters of black fabric with white ink. She did it in a single night before driving all the way to Tokyo from Kobe. These fabrics were haning on the dance floor, falling from the ceiling, and used during our act. Ioan himself helped us setting them up. One of those pieces was particularly special, as it covered the DJ booth in the main stage.
And now it was covering Ioan.
Besides the black fabric I had set a bunch of red fabrics around, hanging from the walls and ceiling. I am tempted to tell you what I think about these red fabrics, however, I said this would be a mere description and not an explanation, so I will keep my mouth closed. But the fabrics were red.
Anyway, after our friend was sitting I placed an incense holder in front of him, filled with ashes.
I put an incense stick inside, and lit it.
And then I went to each of the people around (aka our friends) and gave them an incense stick as well. I asked them to place it in front of Ioan. He was there, smiling, in this slightly awkward situation, not really knowing what was going on. People went there and placed the incense, some of them bowed, some of them danced, some of them simply smiled in silence.
And each of them received a white rope from Bell.
When all the incense sticks were placed, I took the piece of red fabric that covered Bell’s head and used it to cover Ioan’s head. Then Bell and I tied his body, creating a figure like a … oops, I was about to explain there.
I also connected the hanging red fabrics to Ioan.
Then we asked each of the attendees to come to him and tie the end of the rope to his body, which they did.
I was just sitting there, seeing the ropes coming out from my friend. He curled into himself and started moving. Some people held the tension, some people let it go. There was a secret dance between all of them. I wonder what they thought. One person started laughing. Another person was looking at him with intensity, thinking, maybe, that they will miss him. At least that is what I thought.
Then I released the ropes, one by one.
And I took the fabric from his face.
He was sweating like crazy. I looked around looking for the AC remote controller and lowered the temperature as much as possible. Later on someone told me that this was very funny. I guess love can be funny sometimes.
I took the red fabric (the one that covered Bell’s face) and tore it apart, making two pieces.
I took the black fabric (the one that covered the DJ Booth in Unbound) and tore it apart, making two pieces.
And I made a rope curling a red cloth and a black cloth. I placed this rope around Ioan’s neck. Then I made another one with the other two halves. This one I kept to myself.
The act ended there. Ioan went downstairs to play his last set, wearing his new collar.
A friend of ours came and asked me if he could keep the rope he used to hold Ioan, and this made my day.
Today I have the black and red rope, knowing that the other half is somewhere in Switzerland.
What is curled won’t be uncurled, for what was connected will always be.
That is still a mere description.
Thank you for reading Rope Meditations,
Pablo Aida
