PRESENTATION: Tarek Atoui

Tarek Atoui is an artist and composer working within the realm of sound performance and composition. His work challenges traditional ways of perceiving sound and focuses on the medium’s ability to act as a catalyst for human interaction, while exploring its relation to current social, historical and political realities. Atoui’s work often revolves around large-scale, collaborative performances that stem from extensive research into music history and anthropology. He engineers complex and inventive instruments, arranges and curates concerts, performances, listening rooms and workshops.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Kunsthaus Bregenz Archive

Tarek Atoui experiments with electroacoustic sources and synthesizers, is involved in studies on soundscapes, and builds precisely developed musical instruments. Atoui’s inspiration is also drawn from other cultures, from sharing insights with experts, artisans, and musicians from all over the world. His art reads like a new manifestation of the Arts and Crafts movement shifted to the realm of music and of acoustic perception. In the KUB exhibition, the instruments that are to be used in various compositions are spread out in the room, and visitors stroll through a landscape of sound sources laid out on the floor. They are urged to sensitize not only their sense of hearing but also their sense of space. Kunsthaus Bregenz, with its spaciousness and acoustic echo effects, is particularly suited the purpose of his solo exhibition. Tarek Atoui, who emphasises mutuality and common understanding in art, rejects the traditional conventions of musical performance. At the same time, he believes in the inspirational and sensitizing quality of audio experiences. He is concerned not only with triggering aesthetic perception, but also with integrating social, political, geographical, and historical perspectives. For the specially designed accompanying educational program with workshops and creative projects, featuring Tarek Atoui and international musicians take place in the exhibition. The first floor is titled “Souffle Continu”, the works revolve arountd the theme of wind. Tarek Atoui refers to them as “wind instruments.” His wind instruments sensitize us to the many ways we can produce and perceive sound–by hearing, but also by seeing and feeling. Organ Within was designed as an organ for deaf people. Here, vibrations along with other haptic and tactile forms of sound experience exhibition in an expanded form, together with the “Reedboxes”. The latter are light, transportable instruments that produce melodic sounds. The two pieces address different senses and ways of experiencing sound, complementing and completing each other. The “Wind Houses” also belong to Atoui’s group of wind instruments. They function as human-sized flutes or organ pipes. At the same time, they are rooms in which music can be played and performed. “Wind House #2” was made specifically for the exhibition in Bregenz. The second floor entitled “Waters’ Witness”, is dedicated to the theme of water. Even so, the sound of the wind instruments on the first floor makes its way up to this one, thus connecting the two sound installations. Waters’ Witness is an ongoing project based on sound research and field recordings that Tarek Atoui has been conducting together with Eric La Casa since 2015. The recordings document the reality of different port cities. They were made in Athens, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Beirut, and Porto, among other places, both near water and underwater. The work looks at the human, ecological, his­torical, and industrial traces of the sites. Atoui collected objects and materials at each site, transforming them into resonant sculptures and speakers in his installation. The recordings from the different habor cities circulate within the space and emanate through the land­scape of interconnected objects. In contrast to the material heaviness and in­du­s­trial sounds of “Waters’ Witness”, the top floor entitled “The Rain”, dedicated to rain, exudes an ethereal lightness and immerses us in a brighter sound atmosphere. The Rain is influenced by traditional Korean culture. Tarek Atoui collaborated with local instrument makers and craftspeople in Korea. He experimented with techniques and materials to create new instruments that revisit the way traditional drums are played. The work is characterized by pointed, rhythmic sounds and thus also stands out from the long, sustained, and airy sounds of the wind instruments on the first floor. Even though the qualities of the sound on each of the floors differ from one another, the wind, the water, and the rain on the acoustically permeable floors of Kunsthaus Bregenz come together as a phonic unit.

Photo: Tarek Atoui, Installation view ground floor Kunsthaus Bregenz, 2024, Photo: Markus Tretter, Courtesy of the artist, © Tarek Atoui, Kunsthaus Bregenz

Info: Kunsthaus Bregenz, Karl-Tizian-Platz, Bregenz, Austria, Duration: 12/10/2024-12/1/2025, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed & Fri-Sun 10:00-18:00, Thu 10:00-20:00, www.kunsthaus-bregenz.at/