Studio Tarek Atoui
Studio Tarek Atoui
← Long-term research
concluded2016 — 2021

The Reverse Collection

Between October 2013 and May 2014, Tarek Atoui invited 18 experimental musicians from around the world to select and improvise on the instrument collection of the Dahlem Ethnological Museum in Berlin. Devoid of any historical or anthropological information, they engaged with the instruments intuitively, using unconventional techniques and objects to produce sounds. On 30 May and 1 June 2014, Atoui presented a series of 12 live performances at the Dahlem Museum. Composed and directed by the artist, Dahlem Sessions was performed in front of a small audience and meticulously recorded.

Tarek Atoui took audio excerpts recorded in the Dahlem Sessions as a starting point for The Reverse Collection and collaborating with instrument makers on imagining and building the objects that could have generated these recordings. Without involving any images, Atoui proposed to engage with sound directly — contrary to the usual path of ethnomusicology, which studies the shape and mechanism of an instrument with an emphasis on its cultural and social context.

Places
AlUla · Bukhara · Geneva · London · Mexico City · Berlin

Where & when

  1. 2026Phonolitessolo · AlWarsha — AlUla, Saudi Arabia
  2. 2025untitledcommission · Bukhara Biennial — Bukhara, Uzbekistan
  3. 2025Bayt Al Hamssolo · AlWarsha — AlUla, Saudi Arabia
  4. 2025Afrosonica – Soundscapesgroup · Musée d'Ethnographie de Genève (MEG) — Geneva, Switzerland
  5. 2016The Reverse Collectionsolo · Tate Modern — London, UK
  6. 2014The Reverse Sessionssolo · Kurimanzutto — Mexico City, Mexico
  7. 2014Dahlem Sessionsperformance · 8th Berlin Biennale — Berlin, Germany

Gallery

Sound Is a Physical Phenomenon — TateShots, Tate

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Press