Tarek Atoui Water's Witness video

Tarek Atoui (b. 1980, Beirut) is an artist and composer who works with the medium of sound. Through performances and installations using handcrafted musical instruments, Atoui considers how sound is experienced across multiple senses. He also examines the ways in which sound acts as a catalyst for social interaction and its relationship to place, history and ecology.

Waters' Witness is an exhibition that combines elements of the artist's ongoing project dedicated to capturing the sounds of harbour cities, from Athens to Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Beirut, Porto, Istanbul and now Sydney. The project encompasses a composition of tangible and intangible forms - an installation, performances, publications and an archive of sounds - that continually evolve as each new harbour is added.

Atoui collaborates with an international network of musicians, instrument makers, audio technicians and people who are Deaf or hard of hearing. Working with musicians and field recording specialists Chris Watson and Éric La Casa, in Waters' Witness he uses a variety of techniques to record sounds close to the sea, under the water and through materials such as metal, stone and wood. He also collects objects and materials at each site, transforming them into resonant sculptures and speakers. Recordings from different harbour cities circulate within the installation and are programmed to emanate through its landscape of interconnected objects.

Atoui was commissioned to create three sculptures for the exhibition at MCA Australia. Each comprises a suspended metal platform embedded with a piece of Sydney sandstone equipped with a sound system. These new works were inspired by the mixed-use zones witnessed by the artist along Sydney's foreshore during his site visit in March 2023. Atoui became intrigued by the perforated structures used in these zones, where he observed the convergence of nature, society and industry, recognising them as interfaces that bridge co-existing realities.

A new book documenting Waters' Witness in Sydney and created in collaboration with photographer Alexandre Guirkinger will be published by the MCA in October.

Anna Davis, Curator

The exhibition Waters' Witness was conceived by Tarek Atoui and is organised by the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. The exhibition was first produced by the Fridericianum, Kassel, in cooperation with the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, and Mudam Luxembourg - Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean.

Supporting Patrons

Chloe and Andrew Podgornik

Waters' Witness, 2023

custom-built musical instruments, resonant

sculptural objects and natural materials with live sounds and recordings

Courtesy the artist

Artwork Credits

Research and production: Alan Affichard,

Javier Caro, Igor Porte

Sound composition: Jad Atoui, Tarek Atoui Sound recordings: Éric La Casa, Chris Watson

Studio director: Jeanne Holsteyn

Studio assistant: Thomas Besset

Project manager: Anna Seneterre Instruments used in this composition:

The Litophone Serge Durin, I/E Elefsis & I/E Abu Dhabi Tarek Atoui, The Sub-ink Julia Al Sarraf

& Boris Shershenkov, The Rotator Sergey Filatov, The Disharmonica Boris Shershenkov

For further information and content about the exhibition,

O visit mca.art or scan the QR code. noo

Performances

Tarek Atoui: Waters' Witness is activated by a free program of performances by the artist during opening week and by invited performers across the exhibition's duration. Audiences can also participate in sound- making workshops. Visit mca.com.au/whats-on for more information.

Exhibition Credits

Curator: Anna Davis

Assistant curator: Tim Riley Walsh

Curatorial assistant: Annie Zhao

Exhibition manager: Shinae Stowe

Production/Installation: Alex Clapham, Graham Parker

Audio/Lighting: Beau Scott

Graphic design: Alex Torcutti, Koen Arbouw

Registration: Natasha Frisch, Helen Bird

Conservation: Anu Krishnamurthy

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