Tarek Atoui: Cycles in 11 Closing Performances

Overview

March Meeting 2021 will feature in-person closing performances at Bait Al Serkal by sound artist Tarek Atoui and collaborating artists-in-residence as part of the Cycles in 11 exhibition and Residency Programme.

Tarek Atoui: Cycles in 11 centres around experimental and innovative musical forms and offers audiences opportunities to learn about and explore instrument-making, compositional structure and musical collaboration. The exhibition was the starting point for the regional and international Residency Programme wherein musicians, composers and artists have been invited to develop new work, either individually or with different audiences in Sharjah.

During the residency, the heritage house Bait Al Serkal, located in one of the oldest areas in the city of Sharjah, operated as both a sound lab and a performance and listening space informed by the local tradition of hospitality.

The residents had the opportunity to interact with the works within the exhibition. These works, developed over the last 11 years, represent the culmination of the Atoui’s ongoing exploration of different methods of listening, composition and performance. The instruments Atoui has created are the product of extensive research into music history and tradition as well as collaborations with different experts. Challenging established ways of listening through innovative approaches to sound, the instruments also build on the artist’s earlier project WITHIN, which grew out of years of work with Deaf culture. This project, originating in Sharjah, investigated how deafness can influence the way sound performance, space and instrumentation are understood.