{"id":168574,"date":"2026-07-17T11:58:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T09:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.humboldtforum.org\/programm\/termin\/other-en\/brigitte-schiffer-sounds-of-exile-168574\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T12:02:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T10:02:38","slug":"brigitte-schiffer-sounds-of-exile","status":"publish","type":"event","link":"https:\/\/www.humboldtforum.org\/en\/programm\/termin\/discourse\/brigitte-schiffer-sounds-of-exile-168574\/","title":{"rendered":"Brigitte Schiffer: Sounds of Exile"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A conversation between artist Netta Weiser and musicologist Dr. Matthias Pasdzierny, on the life and work of Jewish-German composer Brigitte Schiffer (1909\u20131986). Together, they will discuss Schiffer’s years of exile in Egypt, queer traces in the archive, entangled histories of migration and practices of listening across cultures.<\/p>\n

Brigitte Schiffer studied composition and ethnomusicology in Berlin in the early 1930s. As part of her doctoral research, she conducted fieldwork in Siwa, an isolated oasis in western Egypt. Traveling with a phonograph, she documented a wide range of vocal practices within the local Amazigh community. Among her recordings are rare sonic documents, including a funeral song performed by a children’s choir and a collection of love songs with undertones of queerness sung by agricultural laborers in the oasis gardens<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t

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After submitting her dissertation in 1935, Schiffer fled Germany following the rise of the Nazi regime, going into exile in Egypt, where she lived for the next 30 years and became an important figure within the cultural life of cosmopolitan Cairo.<\/p>\n

Schiffer’s recordings from Siwa were deposited in the Phonogramm-Archiv, an institution historically embedded in colonial knowledge production and now housed at the Ethnological Museum Berlin. Artist Netta Weiser reactivates Schiffer’s archive in her sound exhibition fuga<\/em>, currently presented in the H\u00f6rraum at the Humboldt Forum.<\/p>\n

In this G\u00e4stezimmer event, Netta Weiser will be in conversation with musicologist Dr. Matthias Pasdzierny, who has researched Brigitte Schiffer’s life and work for the past decade. Bringing academic and artistic research into dialogue, they will critically reflect on colonial sound archives, the challenges of transcultural research, and the political potential of listening otherwise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tread more<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tread less<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/read-mode>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

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