PRESENTATION: Tarek Atoui-The Shore / A Place I’d Like To Be

Sound lies at the heart of the artistic practice of Tarek Atoui.  As an electro-acoustic composer and artist, Atoui is known for creating sonic-sculptural landscapes inspired by sound as well as images, matter, space, time, human actions and organic processes. Within these inventive listening environments, which appeal to more than just the ear, he creates rich experiences and interactions that carry sensory as well as socio-political meanings.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: S.M.A.K. Archive

Tarek Atoui’s exhibitions have no fixed trajectories and do not depend on classical behavioral codes. The exploration of the space, observation of the exhibited artworks, and engagement with a succession of varied listening situations are all part of a network of sonic, sensory and human experiences, within which sound and listening are indivisibly connected. Musicians and visitors alike are encouraged to immerse themselves in this landscape and to surrender to the rhythms of the stimuli they encounter and the synergies that gradually form, all of which will flow through hands, eyes and ears. By combining musical instruments, electronic devices and computers, as well as everyday objects, but also by experimenting with expanded forms of listening and concentration, Tarek Atoui confirms his engagement with political and social questions. From the very outset of his career, his practice has developed as a collective enterprise that breaks the traditional power relations between sense and reason, sensitivity and language, technology and craft. As an alternative, he simultaneously invokes perception, intuition, action, interpretation, memory and imagination as the catalysts for personal expression and identity formation. For “The Shore / A Place I’d Like To Be”, his first solo exhibition at a Belgian museum, Tarek Atoui brings together existing works and new productions in a carefully composed installation prompted by his unique understanding of deep listening, his attention to sensory perception and his socio-political motivation. The existing works are selected from larger projects like “WITHIN” (2013 – ongoing), which proposes new ways of generating music, and “The Whisperers” (2021 – 2022), an exploration of how existing sounds change in relation to an array of materials, such as marble, glass, metal and water. Two new works, “66 Soft Cells” and “Windhouse #1”, further expand the experiential and perceptual richness of the overall landscape. “The Whisperers” (2021-2022) is a series of listening devices made from different materials that conduct and amplify sound in a multi-sensorial way. These assemblages of plastic, wood, brass, water, bronze, glass and stone allow for experimentation with the acoustic properties of each material and how they transmit and reflect sound. The Whisperers are inspired by five educational workshop sessions with pupils from a kindergarten class at the École alsacienne in Paris between November 2020 and June 2021. The various experiments that took place during the sessions were synthesized into “Whispering Playground”. Various auditory sources and inputs (sounds relating to industry, water and percussion instruments, or those from vinyl records…) converge in an intricate circuit of water, sound and vibration. Designed for groups of 8 to 12 people, from 4 years old, the aim is to introduce participants to the concepts of vibration, underwater sound and rotation in an exploratory and playful way. A series of works specifically related to these experiences have been developed, including “Drum Club”,” Jukebox”, “Platinum Record Player”, “Totem #1”,” Underwater Birds #2” and “Whispered Pulse”. “WITHIN” (2013- ) is an anchor point in Tarek Atoui’s artistic practice. It has become fundamental to his understanding of sound and listening. The project explores how deafness can change our perception of the sound spectrum, as well as spaces for sound propagation and the potential of instruments. WITHIN seeks to extend notions of listening beyond the purely auditory to achieve sound factors with tactile, physical or visual origins, or which depart from gestures. The project calls many things into question: the act of listening itself; how instruments are designed and played; the conventional definitions of improvisation; the writing of musical scores; and audience relationships. Since the inception of WITHIN, Tarek Atoui has designed a series of twelve musical instruments aimed at both deaf and hearing people. These instruments have already been played by hundreds of professionals and amateurs. Their design and ‘playability’ are the result of workshops and collaborations between artists, instrument makers, students, deaf and hearing volunteers, as well as speakers, designers, sound engineers and educators. All of whom have contributed to the creation of this collection. “Windhouse #1” is a listening and performing space, a musical instrument and wind harvester. It is inspired by the SubBass Prototone, a 2 x 2 x 2 m organ pipe built by Johannes Goebel in the 1980s. Goebel initially constructed the Prototone in wood.  It produces sounds at the lowest end of hearing when it can only be experienced via the hands or body. Atoui built the Prototone during his “WITHIN” project at EMPAC (New York/USA) and the Bergen Assembly (Bergen/Norway) in 2016. It then became the focus of his work with a large community of deaf and hearing musicians. This new work has never previously been exhibited and will be performed for the first time at S.M.A.K. The 66 textile-covered panels in “66 Soft Cells” are distributed throughout the exhibition space. Each has a different pattern, texture or color. The panels are either mounted on the wall, as artworks, or linked to other instruments from Tarek Atoui’s projects. When touched, they emit sound. The artist’s field recordings from port cities serve as the basis for this work. He gathered these sounds, together with his collaborators, during numerous workshops with deaf people in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The boundaries between what one hears, sees and feels constantly merge in “66 Soft Cells”, thereby creating a rich sensory experience for both the audience and musicians

Photo: Tarek Atoui, The Shore / A Place I’d Like To Be, Exhibition view S.M.A.K. Museum-Gent, 2024, Photo Dirk Pauwels, Courtesy the artist and S.M.A.K.

Info: S.M.A.K. Museum, Jan Hoetplein 1, Gent, Belgium, Duration: 6/4-25/8/2024, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 9:30-17:30, Sat-sun 10:00-18:00, https://smak.be/