Lebanese sound artist and composer Tarek Atoui curated a section of 2016's Bergen Assembly, located in the recently closed community swimming pool Sentralbadet. In his piece 'Within', Atoui continued his long-standing exploration of hearing diversities and how deafness can influence the way we experience sound performance. Together with the local deaf community, he interrogated different musical instruments that could address both deaf and hearing people.
Accompanying ‘Within’ at Sentralbadet, Atoui invited Paris based curator duo, Council (Grégory Castéra and Sandra Terdjman), to create the exhibition ‘Infinite Ear’, a series of “Sonic Therapies” such as Deep Listening and Sound Massage, a program of screenings and exhibitions looking at inaudible phenomena and objects.
'Within' and 'Infinite Ear' were performed in the context of the Bergen Assembly, a triennial event in Bergen, Norway devoted to contemporary art and research. Additional sections of Bergen Assembly were curated by freethought and Praxes. Berlin Art Link Productions interviewed Tarek Atoui about the concept behind his contribution to this year's event.
