SONIC INTERSECTIONS: MAPPING CONTEMPORARY SOUND ART PRACTICES IN EGYPT

Mohamed Sallam, Habiba Osama Ahmed

4. term

Media Arts Cultures

2025

113

This thesis maps contemporary sound art practices in Egypt from their earliest emergence while questioning origin stories that assume a single root or linear trajectory. It asks how sound-based practices in Egypt have developed at the intersection of postcolonial institutions, global sound art histories, and local Islamic listening traditions, and how artists deploy sound for community-building and resistance to dominant aesthetic and institutional models. Methodologically, it combines historical and theoretical analysis (drawing on Édouard Glissant’s Poetics of Relation and Jacques Rancière’s aesthetics and politics) with close readings of key works and artist interviews. Through case studies of Hassan Khan’s Lungfan (1995) and Tabla Dubb no. 9 (2002), Ahmed Basiony’s pedagogical practice and his collaboration Madena (2007) with Magdi Mostafa, and Mostafa’s Sound Cells: Fridays (2010), the thesis argues that Egyptian sound art is multirooted and rhizomatic: it sits between institutional art practices in a postcolonial setting and traditional Egyptian and Islamic modes of listening. In the 2000s, sound art operated as a form of resistance to conservative art education and resonated with wider social and political activism, while Islamic understandings of sound foreground its embodied and transformative capacities in contrast to Western vision-centered aesthetics. Finally, the study interrogates the marginalization of sound art within the White Cube model in a non-Western context and shows how Egyptian practices offer strategies to navigate these tensions. The thesis contributes to sound studies in the Global South by situating Egyptian practices beyond Euro-American definitions and by reading technology, listening, and politics together.

Denne afhandling kortlægger samtidige lydkunstpraksisser i Egypten fra deres tidligste fremkomst og udfordrer fortællinger om et entydigt ophav eller én lineær udvikling. Udgangspunktet er spørgsmålet om, hvordan lydbaserede praksisser i Egypten udvikler sig i krydsfeltet mellem postkoloniale institutioner, globale lydkunstdiskurser og lokale islamiske lyttetraditioner, samt hvordan kunstnere bruger lyd til fællesskabsdannelse og modstand mod dominerende æstetiske og institutionelle modeller. Metodisk kombinerer studiet historisk-kontekstuel og teoretisk analyse (bl.a. Édouard Glissants Poetics of Relation og Jacques Rancières tænkning om æstetik og politik) med nærlæsninger af nøgleværker og kunstnersamtaler. Gennem case studies af Hassan Khans Lungfan (1995) og Tabla Dubb no. 9 (2002), Ahmed Basionys pædagogiske praksis og hans samarbejde Madena (2007) med Magdi Mostafa, samt Mostafas Sound Cells: Fridays (2010), argumenterer afhandlingen for, at egyptisk lydkunst er flerrodet og rhizomatisk: den er placeret mellem institutionelle kunstpraksisser i en postkolonial kontekst og traditionelt egyptiske og islamiske lyttemåder. I 2000’erne fungerede lydkunst som en form for modstand mod konservativ kunstuddannelse og i samklang med bredere sociale og politiske bevægelser, mens islamiske forståelser af lyd fremhæver dens kropslige og transformative potentiale i kontrast til vestlig, synscentreret æstetik. Endelig undersøges lydkunstens marginalisering i White Cube-modellen i en ikke-vestlig kontekst, og hvordan egyptiske praksisser tilbyder strategier til at forhandle disse spændinger. Afhandlingen bidrager til lydstudier i det globale syd ved at situere egyptiske praksisser ud over euro-amerikanske definitioner og ved at forbinde teknologi, lytning og politik.

[This apstract has been generated with the help of AI directly from the project full text]

sound art ; egypt ; media art ; sound studies ; middle east ; sound culture ; sonic culture ; cairo

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