Known for lending an experimental contemporary edge to traditional music from the ancient Arab world, Lebanese composer and artist Tarek Atoui takes visitors on a musical journey through the Atlas Mountains and beyond in his latest exhibition at Madrid’s Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum (TBA21).
On show until May 18, At-Tariq is the result of a three-year TBA21-supported research project that took Atoui along the ancient pilgrimage and trade routes that traverse North Africa, immersing himself in the musical and artisanal traditions of the Arab world and the Tamazgha.
The show’s title, At-Tariq, translates as “The Nightcomer” or “The Morning Star”, and acts as the binding thread of the entire project. It refers to a visitor who comes at night seeking knowledge, refuge and companionship along a journey, be it a personal quest, nomadic wanderings or rest stops along the way.
A verse in the Quran tells of always offering hospitality to At-Tariq – a notion that permeates the region’s cultures and transcends boundaries. Atoui’s project acts as an unconventional archive for the many ways the region opens its doors to travellers, offering comfort, food and entertainment to their guests.
“The Nightcomer is the person asking for hospitality, but also the knowledge seeker, the foreigner, in the sense of the one who comes with a real interest about a culture, about a place, and who sometimes is not coming to stay, but is the person passing through and pursuing a larger journey,” Atoui tells The National.
“It’s a way of dealing with the world that I, unfortunately, think is missing nowadays, but there is so much richness to gain out of hospitality, in opening your door to The Nightcomer.
“In our modernity, maybe we should start looking at migrants, immigration and all this discourse currently present in our media, as something that is deriving from the story of The Nightcomer and its symbolism,” he adds. “As The Nightcomer is how I'm moving through the Arab world, starting with Morocco and the Atlas.
“I go in an unannounced way, knocking on traditional musicians' doors and asking them for recordings, speaking to them and learning about these traditions from the perspective of those who play this music today. I learn what it means for them, how they play and build the instruments around them, and the whole ecosystem that surrounds this music, from crafts and industries to daily life routines.”
Curated by Daniela Zyman, the exhibition transforms TBA21’s gallery space into a sprawling majlis that invites guests to discover the varied sounds, textures and crafts of this diverse culture, viewing heritage through a contemporary lens.
The majlis is made up of handcrafted rugs, pillows, pots, musical instruments and objects created specifically for the show by artisans Atoui encountered on his travels, almost a chronology of the craft cultures of the expedition.
Around the seating areas are five kinetic sound stations, a series of objects that produce atmospheric sounds – such as water dripping from pots into a clay basin, glass beads clanking, textiles brushing drums or a fossilised tooth scraping against stone. Hidden speakers have been placed inside clay vases or huge animal-hide drums, distributing the sound evenly, and cables have been disguised by long strands of beads that snake across the floor.
“We have encounters not only with musicians, but also with crafts and craftspeople. The pottery that’s in that show were made at the bottom of the Atlas outside of a town called Zagora, close to the Algerian border, in a landscape that is very dry and very hot,” Atoui says. “These pots were made naturally by a potter who has no electricity, who has to go 14 kilometres to get the water, and make this out of local soil. They came out rough, but with a very special acoustic to them.
“The carpets were made in Taznakht, all the way up in the mountains, by a community of women who weave collectively,” he adds. “The colouring of these carpets came from a very old method that is now almost gone, which is colouring with saffron. Saffron is an expensive product nowadays, but it is massively planted in the region of the Atlas. These women collected old rotten saffron that is not edible any more and used it to colour these carpets, giving this very special yellow that is hard to obtain otherwise.”
The sounds created using these objects act as a baseline to the main hour-and-a-half long composition Atoui has composed for the space. This was created with musicians he collaborated with on the road, as well as New York composer and percussionist Susie Ibarra, Cairo violinist, musician and producer Nancy Mounir, and experimental Berlin artist Ziur.
The resulting soundscape, developed during a residency in Cordoba, layers traditional rhythms and voices from Amazigh – also known as Berber – culture with contemporary electroacoustic and instrumental elements. The kinetic sound stations only produce sound when triggered by the Amazigh voices in the main composition, as a subtle call and response.
Much of this musical heritage is passed down informally through oral and visual learning, leaning heavily on improvisation, without traditional forms and formats. Atoui brought together a host of musicians from different backgrounds, to help take on the challenge of condensing something intangible into a more fixed format that could be understood by an everyday listener.
Without the distraction of watching the music performed, as is usual, Atoui’s dimly-lit majlis offers a meditative quality where the entire focus is on the sonic, lulling the body into the rhythms the longer guests sit and listen.
Throughout the exhibition’s run, performances, workshops and activations of the space are planned, such as a recent performance by Atoui and an ensemble from Ouarzazate and Zagora, staged as part of the programme of ARCOMadrid art fair. Such performances allow a rare opportunity to experience the music first hand. A side room before entering the main show offers drums and other instruments for people to come and try out; an ‘Exploratorium’ that will also conduct workshops, offering a tactile, participatory element.
The TBA21 show is the first chapter of a project that Atoui intends to expand on in the years to come, staging new iterations in other countries and adding to the exhibition to include new encounters.
“It’s a journey that follows the roads of the Tuareg people and the roads of pilgrimage that traverse the Sahara, rather than the Mediterranean. From the Atlas, traversing the southern roads, through Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, all the way to the south of Saudi Arabia and up to Makkah,” Atoui says. “I will be looking at these different traditions in every country, also finding similarities and connections, because the Amazigh are spread in all these areas, but also the Sufis, Khazars, Alawis, and Kabyles, all connected through nomadism and music traditions.
“Every time we go somewhere, a new section from a different country is going to be added, and the main composition will evolve over time, to include new chapters.”
