Phonolites, commissioned for AlUla, develops as a long-term collaboration between Tarek Atoui, the museum, the city, and the community. Initiated through workshops, rehearsals, and open performances with students, musicians, and educators, the project establishes sound as a space for learning and collective presence. As the collaboration expands to include craftspeople, builders, and locals, sonic practices intersect with tactile forms of making rooted in AlUla’s heritage.

For the second chapter of the AlUla project, the research turns toward wind instruments, stones, stone engraving, and embroidery, developed with local materials and in close collaboration with people from AlUla. These practices are brought into resonance with related forms from other regions. The stones presented here, for instance, are elements of a percussion instrument combining resonant stones from AlUla and from the volcanic landscapes of central France. The brass horns shown, developed with Ahmed Ismailov for the Bukhara Biennale 2025, find counterparts made from AlUla’s adobe and buried in the desert as part of Desert X. Current productions and collaborations are ongoing with the Al Deira Center for Crafts, and over the course of this chapter, instruments and ideas developed there will gradually enter the exhibition space.

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