Tarek Atoui's exhibition, presented at the Irish Museum of Modern Art comprises two phases. In the chapel, an installation titled Souffle Continu focuses on the tactile qualities of sound and vibration from wind instruments. In the gallery spaces, Sunflowers presents a series of works inspired by rhythmic and material traditions in Korean drumming.
For the installation Souffle Continu, Atoui has created Wind Houses that link hearing, touch, and sight. These are listening and performance spaces which also serve as musical instruments. As is the case with a flute, air is divided by a bevelled board, thus producing low sounds that resonate throughout the body and in the surrounding space. The organs within the space are sculptural installations that combines research into church pipe organs with the sonic experiences of deaf people. It consists of a network of tubes which connect a computer with an air blower, and various organ modules which interact with each other in such a way that their sounds constantly adapt to each other.
In the gallery spaces Atoui’s new works Sunflowers are influenced by Korean drumming tradition, the spaces will be designed as both listening space and places for the audience to make their own material through workshops.
Tarek Atoui will perform on 20 February as part of the exhibition launch. A second performance by invited musicians Natalia Beylis and Áine O’Dwyer takes place on 21 March.