Vitamin Creative Space

Biography

Born in Lebanon in 1980, Tarek Atoui moved to France in 1998 where he studied economics and electroacoustic music. In 2008 he worked as artistic director at STEIM Studios in Amsterdam, a center for the research and development of new electronic musical instruments. He currently lives in Paris.

Tarek Atoui is a musician, composer and sound artist working experimentally with custom-built electronic instruments. He initiates multidisciplinary interventions, concerts, performances and workshops worldwide. These projects are based on extensive research into the history of music and instrumentation, while also exploring new methods of production.

Atoui often articulates social realities and histories in his work, while presenting sound as a powerful mode of expression and identity. Over the past years, Atoui has researched the relationships between sound, vibrations, instruments and the body, starting with how sound is perceived in Deaf culture. He challenges, expands and revises our established and conventional ways of experiencing sound, while developing a permanent reflection on the concept of the instrument and the act of performance itself as a complex, open and dynamic process.

Tarek Atoui’s most recent solo exhibitions include Tarek Atoui, The Rain, Mirrored Gardens, Guangzhou, China (2024); Tarek Atoui: The Rain, Art Sonje Center, Seoul, South Korea (2023); Tarek Atoui: The Drift, Institut d’art Contemporain, Villeurbanne (2023); Tarek Atoui: Waters’ Witness, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sidney (2023); Water Witness, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto and Musée d'art moderne Grand-Duc Jean - Mudam, Luxembourg (2022); Tarek Atoui: The Whisperers, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York and The Contemporary Austin, Jones Center, Austin (2022);  Cycles in 11, Sharjah Art Foundation (2020-21); Waters’ Witness, Fridericianum, Kassel (2020-21); I/E, Fondation Serralves, Porto (2018); The Ground: From the Land to the See, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (2018); The Ground, Mirrored Gardens, Guangzhou (2017).

He has performed and presented his work at the 14th Gwangju Biennale (2023); 17th Istanbul Biennial (2022);  Okayama Art Summit (2019); 58th International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia (2019); Bergen Assembly (2016); Tate Modern, London (2016); Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2014-15); 8th Berlin Biennale (2014); Sharjah Biennial (2013 and 2009); dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel (2012); Serpentine Gallery, London (2012); Performa 5, New York (2011);Mediacity Seoul (2010); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2010); New Museum, New York (2010) and La Maison Rouge, Paris (2010).