Salon Mondialité is an electro-acoustic musical performance and video installation by musician, producer, and vocalist Miho Hatori that explores themes of memory, identity, and colonialism through kaleidoscopic and expansive dream-pop atmospheres and hypnotic rhythms. Hatori combines composed and improvised music, experimenting with the structure of a “talk-show” to create a listening environment where nostalgia for the past and possibilities for the future co-exist. Hatori’s “talk show” substitutes traditional segments with “sound stories” and features onstage collaborations with Hatori's friends and invited guests.
For this performance at EMPAC, Hatori’s guests include musicians Patrick Higgins and Michael Beharie, and cross-media artists Steffani Jemison and Cole Lu.
A pre-show conversation between Miho Hatori and music curator Amadeus Julian Regucera begins at 7PM.
Inspired by the writing of Martinican poet-philosopher Édouard Glissant and his conception of an “interconnected identity,” Salon Mondialité ultimately takes on the mood of a funeral: laying to rest outdated and colonial ideas of “identity” and a “requiem” for those who died through forced or involuntary exile.
Previously performed at venues such as The Broad in Los Angeles and The Kitchen in New York City, Hatori transforms the EMPAC Theater into the eponymous salon, welcoming audience members to a new version of this show.
Hatori is a Japanese-born and New York City-based vocalist, musician, and producer who performs widely and gained popularity in the 1990s with the legendary band Cibo Matto. Most recently, she released a solo album Between Isekai and Slice of Life and has recorded music under the pseudonyms New Optimism and Miss Information. Additionally, she produces music for soundtracks, films, commercials, and web content.
Main Image: Miho Hatori, Salon Mondialité. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Hassan Ali Khan and Miho Hatori.