Performance | I/E Beirut: two takes of a harbor by Tarek Atoui with Eric La Casa

Friday, October 18th | 7:30pm at Ashkal Alwan

Tarek Atoui’s proposition for the 8th edition of Home Works merges WITHIN and I/E, two ongoing projects that come together for the first time. Developed with Council, Sandra Terdjman and Gregory Castera’s curatorial platform, WITHIN considers deafness as expertise and departs from Deaf Culture to come up with ideas for building instruments, composing, and performing between deaf and hearing audiences. I/E is a journey through which Atoui and sound artist and recordist Eric La Casa travel to harbor cities across the world, capturing on land and underwater industrial as well as natural sounds of ports and their surroundings.

In Beirut, the industrial harbor will be recorded twice—first by Eric La Casa, then by students from the School for the Deaf and Communication Disorders at the Orphan Welfare Society in Saida, Lebanon. Following this recording phase, a performance will take place in which the students will play with La Casa and Atoui using the 33softcells,  an instrument developed for WITHIN and now part of the Saradar Collection.

With the participation of the students from the School for the Deaf  and Communication Disorders at the Orphan Welfare Society in Saida, Lebanon; With the support of MuCEM Marseille and Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris; Co-produced by Saradar Collection; Project assistant  and coordinator: Jad Atoui

This presentation is made possible with the support of Institut français du Liban.

Tarek Atoui is an artist and composer working within the realm of sound. His work often revolves around performances that develop from extensive research into music histories and traditions, and explore new methods of collaboration and production. At the core of his work is an ongoing reflection on the notion of instrument and how it overlaps with the acts of composing and performing.  Atoui’s use of sound challenges and expands our established ways of understanding and experiencing this medium. His project WITHIN, for instance, departs from Deaf Culture to find new ideas for building instruments, composing, and performing. In On The Reverse Collection, instruments of unknown age and origin in an anthropology museum, get played and recorded then a new collection of instruments is created from exclusively listening to these recordings. Atoui has presented his work internationally at 58th Venice Biennale (2019); The Garage Museum, Moscow (2018); CCA NTU, Singapore (2017); Tate Modern, London (2016); the 8th Berlin Biennial (2014); Sharjah Biennial 9 and 11 (2009 and 2013); and dOCUMENTA(13), Kassel (2012). He was appointed co-artistic director of STEIM studios in 2007, and of the  Bergen Assembly, a triennial for contemporary art in Norway, in 2016. Tarek Atoui currently lives and works in Paris.

This event is part of Home Works 8: A Forum on Cultural Practices.