Vitamin Creative Space

The Harvesters

About The Harvesters

The Harvesters (2021-ongoing) is the most recent and still developing long-term project undertaken by Tarek Atoui in East Asia. It takes for point of departure the traditional sheng, a wind instrument also known as mouth organ. The sheng is an instrument found across East Asia from Vietnam to Japan. For Tarek Atoui it came to symbolise the circulation of ideas through different cultures and materials. Since starting his research in 2021, Atoui has assembled a collection of shengs ranging from simple versions made with dried gourd in Vietnam or Thailand, to more elaborate ones made of wood or metal from China, South Korea and Japan.

In The Harvesters the wind used to play the shengs is carried through bamboo pipes. cultures around the world where it is associated with wind instruments. becomes the link between different cultures.

Development

The Harvesters was first conceived in the context of the Thailand Biennale in Chiang Rai in 2023 as a composition, and listening and performance space based on research that Tarek Atoui initiated in 2021 on irrigation systems and traditional wind instruments from Thailand.

The project further developed in 2024 around the area of Mirrored Gardens in Guangzhou where Tarek Atoui worked with a bamboo master on various bamboo structures, and expended his research on shengs to include instruments from China, South Korea and Japan. This led to the development of a series of hanging structures.

These hanging structures are currently part of the composition Inner Garden presented at The Forest Festival, Okayama, Japan in 2024, and in Tarek Atoui: Inner Garden, Mirrored Gardens, Guangzhou, China in 2025.

The project is still developing with further research with instrument-makers and musicians on the various traditions of shengs in East Asia, and with the bamboo master to experiment on new bamboo structures.

Tarek Atoui: Inner Garden
23 Mar. - 20 July 2020
Mirrored Gardens, Guangzhou

The Forest Festival of the Arts Okayama: Clear-skies Country
28 Sept. - 24 Nov. 2024
Okayama

Tarek Atoui, The Wind Harvester, Thailand Biennale at Chiang Rai (Photo: Wanchai Phutthawarin)

The Open World, Thailand Biennale 2023
9 Dec. 2023 - 30 Apr. 2024
Chiang Rai

The Rain

About The Rain

Inspired by Korean drum-making traditions as well as the thinking that lies behind the craft of ceramics and paper, The Rain, initiated by Tarek Atoui in 2019, explores the multiple ways of sound-making through the four elements: Earth, Water, Fire and Wind, a process leading to the experimentation of compositions that transform the cycle of energy into new instruments, performances, and workshops, stimulating different listening experiences and learning processes.

Development

Starting in 2019, The Rain has been developed with the support and participation of the Gwangju Biennale Foundation, where it was presented as part of GB Commissions during the 13th Gwangju Biennale in 2021, and in the form of an installation, a performance and a series of workshops for the 14th Gwangju Biennale in 2023; and of Art Sonje Center where the exhibition, series of performances and workshops Tarek Atoui: The Rain took place in 2023-24.

The Rain was then recomposed to take its current form of a composition in four sections and presented at Mirrored Gardens in Guangzhou in Tarek Atoui: The Rain in spring and summer 2024. It was accompanied by a series of new performances in June 2024.

The Rain was then  presented as part of the exhibitions Tarek Atoui at Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria, and Improvisation in 10 Days, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, Italy in 2024-2025.

Tarek Atoui on The Rain

The Rain is a composition in four sections. There is no loop, there is no beginning and end in the sense of a musical composition or structure that starts and ends. Instead, there is a cycle that is always transforming, and a relationship between instruments that is always changing.

There is a very strong relation to the four elements in the way we speak about some instruments, music, percussion in East Asia,: Water, Air, Fire, and Earth. The Rain is an homage to these four elements, where the idea is to have the four elements play the drums.

In some sections, a water drop is controlling and playing all the rest of the instruments. In other drums, wind is being blown into them, drums that work with wind and that are activated by air flowing inside of them. Other drums react to heat: there are heating systems where the temperature changes inside the space and on the skin of the drum, and the skin dilates, changes tension, changes structure, changes size and you can hear the impact of the heat on those drums. When it comes to earth and to tellurian forces, for me it is about vibration, it is about elements vibrating, shaking: with sound being the vibration itself, it is this material, very grounded feeling that you get in this space when sound becomes physical. Something that you feel in your body and not just with your ears. At other times it sets something that you also see with your eyes and understand from seeing.

The four elements here play a fundamental role, they are the performers, and are at the forefront of bringing this piece to life and making it come together.

- Tarek Ate

Publications

DIALOGS. Aspesi, Lucia, ed. Tarek Atoui. Venice: Marsilio Editori, English, 2025.

MONO LOGS. Trummer, Thomas D, ed. Tarek Atoui. Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, 2025.

Tarek Atoui: Improvisation in 10 days
6 February - 20 July 2025
Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan

KUB 2024.03 Tarek Atoui
12 Oct. 2024 - 12 Jan. 2025
Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz

Tarek Atoui: The Rain
28 March - 5 July 2024
Mirrored Gardens, Guangzhou

Tarek Atoui: The Rain
3 Nov. 2023 - 21 Jan. 2024
Art Sonje Center, Seoul