Tarek Atoui’s first solo show in Italy

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Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, Milan, Italy
February 6 — July 20, 2025

Tarek Atoui’s first solo show in Italy brings together new productions in an original composition created specifically for its space and audience. This is the first time that Atoui has conceived an exhibition as an evolving device, creating a dynamic relationship between space, instruments and people.
Known for his distinctive approach to music, Tarek Atoui (Beirut, Lebanon, 1980; lives and works in Paris) investigates the acoustic properties of elements such as water, air, stone, and bronze and the ways in which they absorb sound and return it with unexpected nuances. This process initiates forms of aggregation and curiosity in the visitors, who are asked to play an active, participatory role. The sonic environments created by the ensemble of the works present in the space suggest possible listening experiences and stimulate non-traditional learning processes.

“Improvisation in 10 Days” is the title of Tarek Atoui’s exhibition. Borrowing a specific term from the lexicon of music, Atoui explores the potential of composition in space, bringing the material, sculptural, architectural and relational qualities of the works into dialogue with the immaterial nature of sound and its reverberation in bodies and things. Using the Shed as a large blank canvas, the artist rearranges and recomposes works from one of his previous exhibitions, starting from the identity of the space (a place of production) and the time coordinates (the days on which the artist will set up the exhibition) and using them to “improvise” movements, harmonies, and tunings to create a collective experience in a sonic environment. This is the first time that Atoui has conceived an exhibition as an actual device capable of evolving and materializing over time in a given situation, creating a dynamic relationship between space, instruments, and people. The true potential of the project lies in its “dynamic” status, in its openness to chance.

Tarek Atoui’s works are conceived as constantly evolving projects that change over time and adapt to the different contexts in which they are presented. 
Image: Tarek Atoui, Waters’ Witness, exhibition view, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney (2023). Photo: Zan Wimberley.