Air Arabia Curator in Residence–’32: The Rescore

This exhibition booklet is a record of Air Arabia Curator in Residence - ’32: The Rescore, a research project and exhibition organised by the second Air Arabia Curator in Residence, Bhavisha Panchia, and presented by Sharjah Art Foundation in partnership with Air Arabia.

Taking the First Congress of Arab Music, held in Cairo in 1932, as both anchor and point of departure, the exhibition attended to the dis(continuities) of identity, history and culture embedded in musical phenomena. Instruments, notation, scale and composition were taken as sites of enquiry, addressing ideological and epistemological schisms between differing world views through musical traditions, registers and practices. The exhibition featured 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.