S.M.A.K. Belgium’s potent offering of interactive sound art by Tarek Atoui

The Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (S.M.A.K.) in Ghent, Belgium, is currently presenting a solo show of Lebanese artist and composer Tarek Atoui, the Shore / a place I’d like to be, on view from April 6 - August 25, 2024. The show brings together several musical instruments, listening devices and art objects by Atoui that transform the exhibition space into a sonic landscape. The use of “shore” in the exhibition’s title is a play on the point where land and sea meet, as the exhibition space acts as a point of contact for two spaces, the first a living room and the second a space for experimentation, like a laboratory. The exhibition opened with a live performance by Atoui, and through the course of its showing, will host various music performances from a list of artists curated by him. the Shore / a place I’d like to be is co-curated by Ann Hoste, Curator - Coordinator Artistic Team, S.M.A.K. and Karima Boudou, Curator, S.M.A.K. Hoste joins STIR for an interview that explores how Atoui’s highly subversive work challenges popular notions surrounding the consumption of music and how S.M.A.K.’s own exhibition space has informed the show.

To Atoui, all sound can be music; but besides being music, sound can be many other things depending on how you work with it. – Ann Hoste, Curator - Coordinator Artistic Team, S.M.A.K.

Atoui has been deeply fascinated by music since his youth. In his early days, he studied electronic music and experimental noise music, a genre that is dadaist in its approach towards song structure and melody, embracing chaos to subvert conventional logics that govern music making. In his current practice, Atoui composes music through traditional and custom-built instruments and sound sculptures and directly involves audience members in his performances, often.

The curator discusses the artist’s work, telling STIR, “To Atoui, all sound can be music; but besides being music, sound can be many other things depending on how you work with it. In the work of the artist, it can be a source of energy, of emotion to be manipulated, an instrument for research on current social, historical and political realities as well as a catalyst for human interaction.”

The sound artist extends his defiance against conventional musical logic by leaving most of his performances unrecorded. The artist does not release audio on distribution platforms either. He wishes to stress the variations that occur during his live performances, with no single iteration of a show being the “right” one. Sometimes, Atoui’s music-making is not about the music at all, as in the contemporary art project WITHIN (2013 - ongoing), where he collaborates with deaf people who play instruments designed to emphasise the visual and vibratory qualities of sound, rather than its aural qualities.

The exhibition space at the Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art has played an important role in shaping the Shore / a place I’d like to be. Hoste tells STIR, “Before making the exhibition, Tarek Atoui visited S.M.A.K. on different occasions to question the space: to explore its history, architecture and qualities as a sound terminal through which the public would be listening to the future sound landscape.” The interactive art exhibition is being shown across a large, open central gallery, flanked by two smaller cabinet galleries on either side. This setup was chosen to lend a sense of spontaneous symmetry to the show, encouraging audience members to be spontaneous in how they handle Atoui’s instruments, sculptures and various other objects such as books that have been placed in the space.

the Shore / a place I’d like to be introduces audiences to a diverse and highly subversive multidisciplinary art practice while allowing them to participate in its expression. Hopefully, Atoui and S.M.A.K.’s offering of sound art will also sensitise visitors to other music-making practices that go beyond conventional sounds and techniques.

‘the Shore / a place I’d like to be’ is on view from April 6 - August 25, 2024, at the Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent.