KURIMANZUTTO | TAREK ATOUI | NEW YORK | MAY 3 – JUNE 25, 2019

Kurimanzutto presents Tarek Atoui’s project Organ Within at its cabinet space in New York City. Operating as an open sound laboratory, and instrumentarium, Atoui will debut a new hybrid sculptural object that engages numerous technologies in order to re-envision the spatialization, perception and performativity of the traditional organ. The Organ Within is the result of his ongoing collaboration with instrument-makers Léo Maurel and Vincent Martial, and their research into historical church pipe organs, modular synthesizers, and the sonic experiences of deaf people.

Tarek Atoui was born in Lebanon in 1980 and moved to France in 1998 where he studied economics and electroacoustic music. In 2008 he worked as artistic director at STEIM in Amsterdam, a centre for the research and development of new electronic musical instruments. Tarek is an artist and electroacoustic composer working with sound performance. The artist engineers complex and inventive instruments as well as arranges and curates interventions, concerts, performances, and workshops. His practice develops from extensive research into music history and instrumentation, revolving around large-scale, collaborative performances that explore new methods of production. The artist’s work is centrally concerned with the ongoing reflection on the instrument and the act of performing as a multifaceted, open, and dynamic process. The orchestrated performances are mostly improvised, but are always grounded in a meticulous investigation of sound archives and collections.