ephemeropteræ 2016/#4: Natasha Ginwala | Sarathy Korwar

08.07.2016 - 08.07.2016

Thyssen-Bornemisza Augarten Contemporary, Wien / Österreich

"Are there not alternatives to memory and forgetting: periods where the past returns – and periods where the past effaces itself? Perhaps such an alternative would be the rhythm of history…”
Henri Lefebvre

The prolific curator and writer, Natasha Ginwala, explores for Ephemeropterae#4 her ongoing project, The Museum of Rhythm putting into action Henri Lefebvre's ideas around rhythmanalysis. This project considers how time regimes act upon social bodies and surveys schemes of regulation from ancient systems of time-keeping to the application of scientific management in industrialized society.... According to Ginwala “The Museum of Rhythm sets forth a gestural itinerary, which includes the early life of metronomes, a dog whistle, a satellite image of “White Lines in The Gobi Desert”, Parisian street calls, the invention of a swimming stroke, Frank B. Gilbreth’s motion studies, an indigenous song tradition composed to radio static, Simone Forti dancing the news, a Laurel and Hardy classic set to a “nervous” throbbing, Theosophist aura diagrams, Hanne Darboven’s encryptions of deep self-time, an aural archive that surveys the politics of listening, nineteenth century photographs of an indigo factory in colonial India, “Sonakinatography drawings” of Channa Horwitz, and much else, to build fictive bridges as well as vital frictions between aesthetic proposals, material histories and scientific documents.”

We tend to treat thinking through rhythm as a methodology that allows us to juxtapose different materials and sources to enable a reading of modernity as principles of organization as well as decode life-patterns across organic and mechanical worlds. But rhythm also performs as a mode of resistance—where the body gains freedom against the disciplinary beat of social construction and knowledge boundaries.


Percussionist and composer Sarathy Korwar performs music inspired by circadian rhythms and insect sounds. He explores the cyclical and spontaneous sonics of the insect world using traditional Indian percussion and electronics. Following the presentation of The Museum of Rhythm, Korwar brings into focus the use of non-conventional music notation to frame his practice and collaborative experiments in sound. His most recent project Day To Day features the traditional folk music of the Sidi community in India. The Sidis are descendants of African migrants and their music integrates East Africa, Sufi, and Indian influences. Day To Day weaves together the music of the Sidis and the reaction and responses to their music by contemporary jazz and Indian classical musicians.

[Source: https://www.tba21.org/]