MoMA Presents Nour Mobarak: Dafne Phono
BY EGW LUXURY MAGAZINE Fall/Winter 2024
Written by Monica Lofstrom
NEW YORK—The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is pleased to present Nour Mobarak: Dafne Phono, the artist's first museum exhibition in New York City and their most ambitious project to date. This large-scale installation reimagines the first opera, Dafne, originally staged by Jacopo Peri and Ottavio Rinuccini in 1598 and inspired by Ovid’s myth of Apollo and Daphne. The exhibition will be on view from October 26, 2024, to January 12, 2025, in MoMA’s Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Studio.
Installation view, Nour Mobarak, Dafne Phono, Municipal Theatre of Piraeus, 2023. Photograph: Stathis Mamalakis. Courtesy the artist and Sylvia Kouvali, London / Piraeus
Mobarak’s innovative installation features 15 singing sculptures encased in organic mycelium structures, each housing a multichannel sound installation that recounts the myth of Dafne in some of the world’s most phonetically complex languages, including Abkhaz, San Juan Quiahije Eastern Chatino, Silbo Gomero, Latin, Italian, and !Xoon. This immersive, polyphonic experience breathes new life into the lost opera through the artist's unique fusion of sonic sculpture, mechanized voice, and memory.
“In its use of voice as a material at the heart of an avant-garde opera, Dafne Phono evokes the legacy of artists like Robert Ashley and Joan La Barbara,” said Sophie Cavoulacos, Associate Curator in the Department of Film. “It’s thrilling to see contemporary artists like Mobarak engaging with the Studio as a platform to reanimate these histories spatially, merging time-based art with sculptural presence.”
The Artist's Vision
Mobarak’s work explores the intersection of language, sound, and biological processes, engaging with themes of decomposition, unruly translations, and metamorphosis. “I’m excited to share this work, where I was thinking so much about the micro and the macro—our individual voices as vibrating, formant tools shaping and shaped by a body politic, a geopolitic, an interspecial politic,” Mobarak reflects. “Creating Dafne Phono allowed me to embody those politics in relation to systems of decomposition, unruly translations, and metamorphosis.”
The historical context of Dafne—an opera whose music is mostly lost yet shaped by the technological and social changes of its time—serves as a foundation for Mobarak’s contemporary reinterpretation. The sculptural forms of Dafne Phono broadcast audio tracks that transform the surviving libretto into a chorus of diverse voices, deconstructing and reassembling speech into new forms that transcend fixed meanings. This dialogue between historical text and modern sound creates a powerful commentary on the endurance and transformation of language over time.
Mycelium and Sound
A central element of the installation is the use of mycelium—a network of fungal threads known for its role in decomposition and regeneration. Mobarak has been working with this organic material since 2017, intrigued by its potential to enhance resonance and spatialization. The installation’s 20-minute sound cycle unfolds within these mycelium structures, creating a rich auditory experience that resonates both physically and metaphorically. The work's organic materiality and the linguistic intricacy of its vocal content mirror the broader themes of repetition, decay, and rebirth.
Mobarak’s practice spans vocal performance, improvisation, electronic sound, movement, and poetry. Dafne Phono intertwines nature and technology, examining the voice's capacity to navigate cycles of life and death, while bridging ancient and contemporary histories. This installation continues Mobarak’s exploration of mechanized voice and memory, positioning the voice as a formant tool that shapes and is shaped by the complex interactions of the body, culture, and technology.
Exhibition Details
Dafne Phono is Mobarak’s most ambitious project to date, drawing on their deep engagement with avant-garde sound practices and the tradition of performance. By juxtaposing linguistic structure with biological processes, Mobarak highlights how both are governed by systems of repetition, decomposition, and regeneration, reflecting broader forces of political power. The exhibition joins nature and technology in a compelling exploration of the voice’s ability to endure and transform, bridging the histories of performance and language with contemporary concerns.
Organized by Sophie Cavoulacos, Associate Curator, Department of Film, with May Makki, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Media and Performance.
Leadership funding for the exhibition is provided by the Lonti Ebers Endowment for Performance.
Major support is provided by the Wallis Annenberg Director’s Fund for Innovation in Contemporary Art, the Sarah Arison Endowment Fund for Performance, and the Julie A. Zoppo Fund for the Exhibition of Women Artists.