Something More Than a Succession of Notes

Ten years ago, UNESCO instituted a Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, offering unprecedented recognition to practices in the order of orality, ritual, and know-how. Yet, how can we envisage the preservation of immaterial aspects of culture, in such a way that does not freeze them into an inventory, and reduce them to a transcription or reactivation inevitably partial and subjective? The exhibition Something More Than a Succession of Notes interrogates the paradoxes that arise with the patrimonialization of practices that are by definition variable and evolving. Facing the impossibility of objectively representing and interpreting that which has a life of its own, this project intends to reveal the flaws of any recording process. At the intersection of anthropology, history, art, and museology, the exhibition brings together contributions from researchers, activists, and artists whose works transform the limits of transcription into a subject of inquiry and creation.