Sound lies at the heart of the artistic practice of Tarek Atoui (b. 1980, Beirut, Lebanon). 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.
The meticulously designed musical instruments, listening devices, sculptures and objects in Tarek Atoui’s works are the result of detailed conceptual and technical processes. Drawing on deep research and experimentation, they bear the stamp of his collaborations with experts, craftsmen and other interested parties. Composed into fascinating, agile installations that interact with the context in which they are exhibited, they encourage activity in a myriad ways. Different things can happen in these non-hierarchical learning environments: a stand-alone musical composition might run or the instruments can be activated, either by professional musicians or during a guided visit. The installations might be the object of a participatory workshop. Visitors to the exhibition are gently prompted to listen to the space, to each other and to themselves.
Tarek Atoui’s exhibitions have no fixed trajectories and do not depend on classical behavioural 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 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.
Like the word ‘Shore’ in the title of the exhibition, which divides sea and land, Atoui creates the semblance of a dichotomy within the exhibition spaces at S.M.A.K. He alludes to two divergent realms, one a living room and the other an experimental laboratory, that continuously meet and merge on the site. Both relate to human activity, although they initially operate from opposite positions of rest and action, of familiarity and renewal, slowing down and accelerating, of personal encounters and automated networks. In this fluctuating environment, the artist inserts new objects that demand exploration but also includes a range of seats, plants, a library, and familiar objects like books and technical gadgets that the visitors can handle. Meanwhile, an extensive apparatus of computers and cables drives the audio installation, water bubbles up in a stone sculpture, and a visitor briefly disrupts the network by putting a record on a turntable. Here, how people play or appreciate sound is no longer dependent on a single form of knowledge, but on curiosity and a willingness to look at the world differently.
A series of performances by Tarek Atoui and invited musicians is programmed around the exhibition.
Press release from S.M.A.K.
Image: Tarek Atoui. Installation view of the Shore / a place I’d like to be. 2024 © Dirk Pauwels. Image courtesy of the artist and S.M.A.K.
