Tarek Atoui: Improvisation in 10 days
Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, Milano
February 06 – July 20, 2025

Tarek Atoui (Beirut, Lebanon, 1980; lives and works in Paris) is an artist and electroacoustic composer who explores the medium of sound and how it shapes perception through dynamic installations, experimental acoustic environments, and collaborative performances. Atoui collaborates with composers and craftsmen from various countries to invent hybrid instruments with a strong sculptural quality.

Bringing together a wide range of materials and knowledge, he tests the acoustic properties and unique ways in which elements such as bronze, water, glass, and stone transmit and reflect sound. Using custom-built electronic instruments and computers, the artist references current social and political realities, revealing music and new technologies as powerful aspects of expression and identity. Education and social connection are integral aspects of the artist’s practice, who often collaborates with various local communities and invites visitors to interact and experience his multi-sensory environments.

This exhibition is Tarek Atoui’s first solo show in Italy, bringing together existing works and new productions commissioned by Pirelli HangarBicocca in an original composition conceived specifically for its audience and space. Combining visual, tactile and acoustic realms, the exhibition will incorporate multiple sonic dimensions, activating both the forms and the sound of the works in the former industrial space of Pirelli HangarBicocca. The experience will be the result of the accumulation of iterations of previous projects, along with new productions that will simultaneously transform the environment into an exhibition and composition space, where visitors themselves can resonate harmoniously with the installations

Tarek Atoui has exhibited at numerous major institutions such as Kunsthaus, Bregenz, Austria, S.M.A.K., Ghent, Belgium (forth- coming, 2024); Art Sonje Center, Seoul, Museum of Contemporary Art MCA, Sydney, iacnstitut d’art contemporain, Villeurbanne (2023); The Contemporary Austin, Texas, the FLAG Art Foundation, New York (2022); Fridericianum, Kassel (2020) Museo Serralves, Porto, MUDAM, Luxembourg (2022); NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Brussels (2017); Bergen Assembly (2016); Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (2015); Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2014 and 2015). He has also presented his performances at renowned institutions such as Sharjah Art Foundation (2020); Palazzo Grassi – Pun- ta della Dogana – Pinault Foundation, Venice (2019); Para Site, Hong Kong, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Castello di Rivoli, Tu- rin (2017); Tate Modern, London (2016); Serpentine Gallery, Lon- don (2012); Performa 11, New York (2011).

more. www.pirellihangarbicocca.org

Image Courtesy of Pirelli Hangar Bicocca

Image Courtesy of Pirelli Hangar Bicocca

Image Courtesy of Pirelli Hangar Bicocca