’32: The Rescore, Air Arabia Curator in Residence Exhibition

Overview

Sharjah Art Foundation in partnership with Air Arabia presents ’32: The Rescore, a research project and exhibition organised by the second Air Arabia Curator in Residence, Bhavisha Panchia. Taking the First Congress of Arab Music, held in Cairo in 1932, as both anchor and point of departure, the exhibition attends to the dis(continuities) of identity, history and culture embedded in musical phenomena. Instruments, notation, scale and composition are taken as sites of enquiry, addressing ideological and epistemological schisms between differing world views through musical traditions, registers and practices. Of importance are the ways in which these phenomena and tensions speak to contemporary cultural negotiations, raising questions of technological adoption and cultural adaptation. Opening on 27 September 2019, the exhibition will feature a range of media, including vinyl records, sound works, video, performance and installation, to show how music is an agent of cultural and political force.