15.11.2023
Pakkyōne is a doll dressed in torn clothes, safety pins, and rags that we found in a small abandoned farmhouse. She cannot speak because her vocal cords are sewn shut with thread and mint leaves coated with resin. She communicates using an unusual language consisting of sounds, graphemes, and head movements. She carved a holey guzheng (a Chinese version of the zither) out of a hollow tree and assembled a strange little orchestra of sound stones, copper, and molten lead. Since the puppet has no face or eyes, she sometimes borrows masks of different appearances so as not to fall to the ground and look at the world.
pakkyōne is the creative work of Valerio Mirone, musician, noise artist and singer, multi-instrumentalist and researcher of throat and overtone singing. He is a member of the Merz Foundation's Wadi Ensemble and an external partner of the Italian Cultural Institute in Tokyo. He also teaches Japanese at a high school and works as a translator. He currently works as a translator, musician, and performer: Utveggi (4 albums, tour in Japan), pakkyōne, Monogatari, and the Merz Foundation's Wadi Ensemble are some of the projects he is involved in.
