Known for his particular approach to music, Lebanese musician and artist Tarek Atoui investigates the acoustic properties of elements such as water, air, stone and bronze and the ways in which they absorb sound and return it with unexpected nuances. This process initiates forms of aggregation and curiosity in visitors, who are asked to play an active and participatory role.
“Improvisation in 10 Days”, curated by Lucia Aspesi, is the title of Tarek Atoui’s exhibition. “In Milan, my proposal is a tribute to improvisation,” explains the artist. Borrowing a specific term from the lexicon of music, Atoui explores the potential of composition in space, putting the material, sculptural, architectural and relational qualities of the works into dialogue with the immaterial nature of sound and its reverberation on bodies and things.
The sound environments created by the ensemble of works present in the space suggest possible listening experiences and stimulate non-traditional learning processes.
"Improvisation in 10 Days" by Tarek Atoui. Photograph by Agota Lukyte, courtesy by Pirelli HangarBicocca.
Using the Shed as a large blank canvas, the artist rearranges and recomposes works from one of his previous exhibitions, starting from the identity of the space (a place of production) and the temporal coordinates (the days on which the artist will mount the exhibition) and using them to "improvise" movements, harmonies and tunings to create a collective experience in a sound environment. It is the first time that Atoui conceives an exhibition as a real device capable of evolving and materializing over time in a given situation, creating a dynamic relationship between space, instruments and people. The true potential of the project lies in its "dynamic" character, in its opening to chance.
"There is no loop, no beginning or end in the sense of a musical composition or structure that begins and ends. There is a cycle that is always transforming and a relationship between instruments that is always changing."
Tarek Atoui.
After a background in music, Atoui began by exploring the properties of sound through performance, later expanding his research towards the spatiality of objects in relation to the artistic context. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with composers and artisans from various countries to invent and produce instruments with a strong sculptural imprint, combining a wide range of materials and skills. Using electronic devices and software, the artist reflects on contemporary social and political realities, revealing the importance of music and new technologies as dimensions of expression and identity. Educational values and social relations are constitutive aspects of Atoui’s practice, which often involves collaborations with diverse local communities and invites visitors to interact and experience their multi-sensory environments.
"Improvisation in 10 Days" by Tarek Atoui. Photograph by Agota Lukyte, courtesy by Pirelli HangarBicocca.
Tarek Atoui’s works are conceived as constantly evolving projects that change over time and adapt to the different contexts in which they are presented. The artist is often inspired by past works that he reimagines, resulting in a different poetic experience and sensibility with each reworking. His research always begins with an acoustic paradigm that is experienced through activities such as workshops with local communities of artisans, researchers or musicians, and then leads to the production of sculptures and installations that invite a meditative and multi-sensory approach. In his work, sound takes on material qualities and, in addition to being heard, can be transmitted and perceived through vibration, mechanical tension on a surface or tactile experience. The exhibition presents three bodies of work, arranged harmoniously in space and in dialogue with natural light.
The first group of works, WITHIN (2013–ongoing), is one of the artist’s longest-running projects, emerging from a workshop that Atoui designed and led with a community of deaf people. In these works, the artist seeks a method to perceive sound in a tactile, visual and performative dimension. Drawing on his experience as an educator, he reflects on the act of listening and reinterprets musical sound as a language of learning. From this series of works, the exhibition includes the group Souffle Continu, consisting of Organ Within (2022), a sculpture that reinvents the traditional organ and its performative, spatial and perceptual characteristics, and the more recent Wind House #1 and #2 (2023-24), two "wind rooms" accessible to visitors, who can experience through their bodies the sound produced by a flow of compressed air and shaped by the transparent structure.
"Improvisation in 10 Days" by Tarek Atoui. Photograph by Agota Lukyte, courtesy by Pirelli HangarBicocca.
The second corpus, Waters' Witness (2020-23), emerges from research carried out in collaboration with musician and composer Eric La Casa in several ports, including Athens, Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Istanbul, Porto, Sydney and Singapore. Experimenting with different technologies, such as underwater and ambient microphones, Atoui recorded the sounds of these non-places that were once the beating heart of cities. For the version at Pirelli HangarBicocca, the artist exhibits several marbles from the city of Athens, now used in the restoration of ancient Greek temples.
The Rain (2023-ongoing), one of the artist’s lesser-known works, is dedicated to rain. Characterized by sophisticated shapes and materials such as wood, rope and bronze, the work is inspired by traditional Korean drum-making techniques and the craftsmanship of ceramics and paper. Atoui explores multiple sound compositions through the use of technological devices associated with the four elements – earth, water, fire and wind – in a process that transforms the cycle of energy into new instruments and stimulates different auditory experiences.
“The four elements here play a fundamental role, they are the performers and they are, I would say, at the forefront of bringing this piece to life and making it work.”
Tarek Atoui.
