The accordion, like any object, holds a collective memory: an accumulation of individual stories, historical and cultural memories intertwined over time. But what happens when this object is dismantled? At what stage of erosion does the instrument cease to be physically itself and become something else?

The project originates from the individual memory and family heritage of Carlo, accordionist and performer from Castelfidardo (Italy), a town internationally renowned for its accordion-making industry. ablation is a research project that explores the memory an object preserves even after its erosion. Like a cardiac ablation, the memory (re-cordis, “back to the heart”) of how the instrument once sounded, of who built it, is worn away until it becomes nothing but an echo.

During the residency, with technical support from Giuseppe De Benedittis, Carlo built a system of motors and fans independently controlled via Arduino. The research also led to the creation of wooden supports for the reed blocks (somiere), designed to move these motors and give rise to a spatialized musical instrument, separate from the physical body of the accordion.
By the end of the residency, this process took shape in a first artistic output: the disassembled accordion re-sounds — through variations, stretches, and alterations — an old piece that once belonged to the instrument in its assembled form.