In Remembrance of 9/11
Eiko Otake
Slow Turn
September 11, 2021 at 7am & 6pm
Belvedere Plaza, Battery Park City
Eiko Otake: Slow Turn is presented in partnership with NYU Skirball, Battery Park City Authority (BPCA), and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC).
On September 11, 2021, Eiko Otake performed at 7am and 6pm at Belvedere Plaza in Battery Park City by the Hudson River, directly west of where the Twin Towers once stood.
Marking 20 years since the 9/11 attacks, this free public event was presented in partnership with NYU Skirball, Battery Park City Authority (BPCA), and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC). Eiko & Koma were artists-in-residence in the North Tower throughout the year 2000. In 2002, on this very plaza, they premiered Offering: A Ritual of Mourning with David Krakauer, an internationally acclaimed clarinetist/composer. Offering was produced and presented by Dancing in the Streets with free admission in parks throughout Manhattan. Eiko & Koma later performed Offering in many cities around the world.
Created specifically for this occasion and this site, Eiko’s new piece, Slow Turn, centers on a monologue of her personal memories of that day and its aftermath. She invited David Krakauer to perform short solo pieces to bookend her monologue, with Iris McCloughan as a dramaturg.
Born and raised in Japan and a resident of New York since 1976, Eiko Otake is a movement–based, interdisciplinary artist with a history of working for forty years as Eiko & Koma. Starting with The World Trade Center in 2000, LMCC offered many residencies to both Eiko & Koma and Eiko herself. Three consecutive River To River Festivals (2014-2016) presented EIko’s first independent work Two Women; her solo works A Body in a Station, A Body on Wall Street, and A Body on Governors Island; the video installation A Body with Water; and the experimental “Talking Duets” with Emmanuelle Huynh and Okwui Okpokwasili. These duets, and conversations with Sam Miller, led Eiko to develop her extensive Duet Project (2017-), in which she engages with artists of varied backgrounds and practices.
Duet Project will have its New York premiere at NYU Skirball in April 2022.
Grammy nominated soloist, band leader and composer David Krakauer has been praised internationally as a key innovator in modern klezmer as well as a major voice in classical music. Krakauer frequently appears with the world’s finest orchestras, quartets and ensembles, such as Orchestre de Lyon, the Seattle Symphony, Kronos Quartet, and Tokyo Quartet. Krakauer’s discography includes The Twelve Tribes (Label Bleu), designated jazz album of the year/2001 in Germany, and The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind (Osvaldo Golijov and the Kronos Quartet/Nonesuch). In 2002 Krakauer composed and performed live for Eiko & Koma’s Offering www.davidkrakauer.com