Joe Namy is a Lebanese artist and musician based in London, whose practice encompasses sound, and its history and impact on the built environment. Namy’s work critically engages with the gender dynamics of bass, migration patterns of instruments, and the complexities of translation in all this—from language to language, from score to sound, from drum to dance. Ongoing projects by Namy focus on the history and resonance of opera houses across eleven countries in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region, and activations on the archive of pioneering electronic musician Halim El-Dabh.

This version was created for the Biennale of Sydney by Rubaiya Qatar, Qatar Museums with generous assistance from British Council in Sydney. Originally commissioned by Ashkal Alwan.