TAREK ATOUI: WATERS’ WITNESS

 
OCTOBER 3, 2020 - JANUARY 17, 2021
 
FRIDERICIANUM | KASSEL, GERMANY
 
Container ship hull and steel rails in Abu Dhabi ports (2017),
Tarek Atoui hands during I/ E performance at the Louvre, Paris (2013),
marble stones © Alexandre Guirkinger
 

Tarek Atoui conducts anthropological, ethnological, musicological and technical research that culminates in the realization of instruments, listening rooms, performances and workshops. His exploration of the potential of sound art lies at the heart of practice.

Born in 1980 in Beirut and based in Paris, Atoui investigates how sound events or noises have an acoustic effect and how these phenomena can be perceived with sensory organs other than the ear. He enquires how sounds act as a catalyst for human interaction and relate to social, historical or spatial parameters.

Waters' Witness is Atoui’s first solo show work in Germany. It is based on his ongoing project I/E, for which he has been documenting the sounds of city ports, including Athens, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Porto and Beirut, since 2015.

Separate components of his research combining audio recordings from different ports with materials such as marble blocks and steel girders gathered from each site in order to form a single unit with the surrounding space. This arrangement will be accompanied by The Tables of Contents, a work through which Atoui’s central theme of participation becomes apparent.