In Madrid a trip to the heart of the ancestral music of North Africa begins by the Foundation TBA21 Art Contemporary and Tarek Atoui.
TBA21 Art Contemporary is an international foundation that believes in the power of art and artists as a engine of social and environmental change. The new program for this 2025 starts Today February 18 with “Tarek Atoui. At-tāriq. A trip to the rural musical traditions of North Africa and the Arab world ”.
Commissioned by Daniela Zymanwill be exhibited in the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum between the February 18 and May 18. It proposes to the visitor an immersive trip to the ancestral traditions of rural music in North Africa, putting them in our world. The exhibition claims the ancestral music of North Africa, from experimental electronics and in the contemporary context.
The Franco-Liban musician Tarek Atoui has been exploring the rich musical legacy of the Moroccan Atlas and the Amazight culture for three years, investigating his oral heritage, and talking with traditional and artisan musicians in the region. Tarek will transform the museum’s rooms into five Majlis – the traditional host space within the Arab and North Africa culture – converted by the artist into listening stations with poetic resonances. The goal is to transport that fascinating world to explore.
The musical composition that will involve the attendees fuses conversations, poems and traditional songs with electronic sounds. Textiles, ceramics and digital and analog instruments designed by Tarek will put the public fully in this fascinating world, which has preserved a sophisticated sound tradition with unique characteristics of trance and improvisation. It is an ancient musical culture that has been hidden for centuries, and that the musician intends to make visible with all his strength.
The musical piece composed of Tarek Atoui is the result of its residence in Córdoba throughout the year 2023, along with the Ziúr (Berlin), Susi Ibarra (New York) and Nancy Mounir (El Cairo) music. They will accompany him, along with eight traditional Atlas musicians in a free concert that will take place on March 3 in the context of the Arcomadrid fair.
The exhibition will be activated during the three months in which it can be visited at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. There will be Guided Visits Night Performatic, Concerts, Conferences and Workshops for both general and school and family. You can expand the information in: www.museothyssen.org/exposiones/tarek-atoui
