Research Associate
(Curation of New Music from the MENA region)
Bio
Dr Rim Irscheid is a German-Palestinian researcher in the field of contemporary sound production and curation across Lebanon and the Palestinian diaspora. Her work spans the fields of ethnomusicology, curatorial theory, urban anthropology, and cultural policy research. As part of the Beyond 1932 project, she curates an artist residency series in collaboration with the British Library, inviting artists from Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, and beyond to reflect on the sonic and colonial legacy of the 1932 Cairo Congress. Since 2019, she has worked as a freelance curator for sound interventions and public discussions on diversity-sensitive approaches to diaspora music productions at Planet Ears, Mannheim.
Rim holds a PhD in Ethnomusicology & Curatorial Practice from King’s College London, a MSt in Musicology from the University of Oxford, and a joint BA in Musicology and Psychology from the University of Heidelberg. Her own artistic practice explores the paradox of German ‘Leitkultur’ and ambivalent feelings of alienation, belonging, and lived experiences of German citizens of Palestinian heritage in the Federal Republic.
Research
Rim’s postdoctoral research is looking at grassroots archiving, memory work, and feelings and belief systems around power, gatekeeping and control of state-owned archives and anti-institutional approaches. She is particularly interested in counter-institutional forms of sound and knowledge production that circulate alternative histories and narratives of the region. Rim is currently working on a book on artist-led institutions and curatorial activism of Levantine artist collectives. Her AHRC-funded doctoral thesis was concerned with the representation of contemporary Arab arts and culture in Germany and artist-run Lebanese production sites working across Beirut, Berlin, and Mannheim. The project examined how performative inclusivity, ethics of care, and anti-world music sentiments at German festival sites feed into the affective dimensions of artist networks across Germany and Lebanon.
Publications
[Forthcoming] 2024. ‘Power, agency, curation: Reframing experimental sound production in Berlin’, in: Music and Intercultural Practice, Routledge: London
2023. ‘The aftermath of German world music: Affective dimensions of collaborative cultural productions across Berlin and Beirut’, in: Yearbook Song and Popular Culture (68), Center for Popular Culture and Music, Waxmann: Münster, pp. 79-95.
2023. Curating after world music: Contemporary and experimental practices between Lebanon and Germany. PhD Thesis. King’s College London.
2023. Curating at Planet Ears, in: ‘On Unperforming the Curatorial’, in: Politics of Curatorship: Collective and Affective Interventions, Norient Books: Bern, p. 63.
2023. ‘Radio AlHara: Towards a More Sustainable Curatorial Practice’, in: field notes: magazine for contemporary music in Berlin.
2023. ‘Curating Narratives, Sensing Their Meaning: How Tuning Into Our Environment Inspires Meaningful Art’, in: Sonic Matter.
2021. ‘Radical unintentionality’, in: Norient: the now in sound.
2021. ‘The «Problem» and Potential of Tradition’ in: Norient: the now in sound.
2020. ‘BLM & Musikwissenschaft: Antirassismus Transdisziplinär’, in: musiconn.kontrovers.