PRESENTATION:Tarek Atoui-Hold

Tarek Atoui treats sound not as something just to listen to, but as a physical material you can see, feel, and explore in space. As a sound artist and composer, he designs custom-built instruments, sensory objects, and expansive installations. By manipulating air, water, electronic signals, and architectural acoustics, Atoui creates environments where vibration becomes tactile. His work continually challenges conventional ways of hearing, inviting diverse audiences—including deaf and hard-of-hearing communities—to experience acoustic art through touch, resonance, and collective interaction. 

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo Tate Archive

Combining sculpture, performance, music, technology and social research, Tarek Atoui creates environments where sound is experienced not only through the ears, but through the whole body. In “Hyundai Commission: Tarek Atoui: Hold”, the artist transform the Turbine Hall into an immersive sonic landscape comprising custom-built wind instruments, percussion, electronics and sculptural objects, woven together to make an orchestra which connects the earth and sky. This living environment will constantly evolve throughout the run of the commission, with moments of live performance.

Hanging above the Turbine Hall ramp, a metal karnai (a ceremonial brass trumpet from Uzbekistan) is joined by two 3D-printed horns that echo and amplify the instrument’s elongated form. At the far end of the hall, drum skins, gongs, horns, and 20m long textiles are suspended among a network of bamboo and shengs (mouth organs from China and Southeast Asia), through which wind is channelled by a computer-controlled motor. In making the work, Atoui has responded to the extraordinary height, airflows and acoustic character of the Turbine Hall. Lithophone-like stones and warm lights invite visitors to sit, lie, gaze up, and attune themselves to the relationship between sound, materials, architecture and bodies. Drawing on the artist’s memories of gathering places, from vine-covered canopies to sheltered courtyards, the exhibition situates the Turbine Hall as a site for encounter and exchange.

Atoui’s installation is the culmination of over two decades of experimentation, including collaborations with musicians, instrument-makers, engineers and researchers across Asia and Europe. Drawing on these projects, he reimagines shengs, Korean drums, Uzbek horns and custom-built electronic systems. Continuing his longstanding interest in fusing experimental technologies with ancient instruments, the artist worked with architecture firm Arthur Mamou-Mani to create the 3D-printed horns from a composite material made with sugar resin and bamboo dust. He also worked with Satoshi Kondo, designer of ISSEY MIYAKE’s women’s line, who provided signature textiles used in the installation. Atoui coated the suspended textiles with conductive paint that transmits a low electric current to a synthesiser, generating shifting bass tones as they oscillate with the wind currents and humidity levels in the space. Microphones embedded within the installation sample the sounds produced by the instruments and the bustling backdrop of the Turbine Hall, with custom software developed by the artist working and playing them back as layers of the composition. Foregrounding the importance of improvisation in Atoui’s practice, these elements contribute to an ever-changing soundscape.

Throughout the six-month duration of “Hyundai Commission: Tarek Atoui: Hold”, the Turbine Hall will regularly become a site for live sound-based  performances, where a network of musicians will ‘plug into’ or play within Atoui’s installation. The programme will platform both local and international musicians from-instrumentalists to electronic artists, collectives and labels – highlighting the work of Atoui’s longstanding collaborators and fostering new connections.

Photo: Tarek Atoui, The Rain, 2023–4. Installation view third floor Kunsthaus Bregenz, 2024. Photo: Markus Tretter. © Tarek Atoui, Kunsthaus Bregenz. Courtesy of the artist

Info: Tate Modern, Bankside, London, United Kingdom, Duration: 13/10/2026-11/4/2027, Days & Hours: Mon-Thu & Sun 10:00-18:00, Fri-Sat 10:00-21:00, www.tate.org.uk/