Can We Sing Together Again, Old Friend? is the outcome of a residency of nearly three months by the Cape Town-based artist Thania Petersen at 32Bis. The exhibition is a sensory narrative of the rites of the Mouled: cutting lemon leaves, burning louben, adding musk, oils and orange blossom water, and dividing the mixture into thousands of small organza bags before the dhikr, or jiker, can begin.

The practice goes back to the communities of Southeast Asia forcibly displaced to the Cape by Dutch colonists in the 17th century, while its scents recall North Africa, telling another story of the cultural and religious exchanges between Asia and Africa: the incessant circulation of sounds, melodies, rites and rhythms across ages and seas.

I followed the production of the exhibition throughout the residency, with Hela Djobbi and Roya Mansar: the production of the embroideries with Tili Tanit, the scenography of the exhibition, and the coordination of the performance Jieker, presented at the opening by Thania Petersen with Lobna Noomen and the Al-Aissaouia troupe “Antom Sadati”, led by Cheikh Azzeddine Farjani.