Sharjah Art Foundation announces Visiting Tarab, an evening of music, to premiere opening week of Performa 11 (Nov 1 - 21), the fourth edition of the internationally acclaimed New York visual art performance biennial. Conceived by Lebanese artist Tarek Atoui, Visiting Tarab will incorporate elements of the world’s largest collection of Classical Arab music as interpreted by 16 musicians and sound artists ranging in expertise from hip hop to electronic and contemporary music. A Performa Commission with the Sharjah Art Foundation, Visiting Tarab is one of 12 commissions by the New York biennial. The US commission also continues the Sharjah Art Foundation’s ongoing commitment to support the flourishing arts environment in the Gulf region and beyond by actively pursuing both a regional and international program of cultural collaboration and exchange. The performance will be held November 5, 2011, from 8pm to midnight, at SIR Stage 37 in New York City and will be followed by more than 100 performances by acclaimed contemporary artists included in the three-week biennial. To purchase tickets, please visit www.performa-arts.org.
Used in Arab culture to describe the emotional effect of music, “Tarab” is also commonly associated with a traditional form of art-music. The word “Tarab” refers to an older repertoire rooted in the pre-World War I musical practice of Egypt and the East-Mediterranean Arab world, and is directly associated with emotional evocation. For his Performa Commission, Atoui invited ten musicians and sound artists from different origins and practices to Beirut to explore the world’s largest and most extensive collection of Classical Arab music. This private collection, owned by Lebanese collector Kamal Kassar, is comprised of old 78 rpm shellac discs and studio tapes ranging from 1903 to 1950, largely covering the Arab renaissance period that started early in the 19th century and continued through the 1930s.
The result of this research will be the performance in New York City and will feature the artist as well as Anti-Pop Consortium, Uriel Barthelemi, Jonathan Butcher, DJ Spooky, Lukas Ligeti, Robert Lowe, Raz Mesinai, Ikue Mori, Sara Parkins, Zeena Parkins, Elliott Sharp and Zafer Tawil. The one-night-only US performance will be a continuous building of energies, intensities, and textures inspired by the structure and rules of “Tarab,” transforming the New York venue into a space of enchantment and ecstasy.
Visiting Tarab will premiere in the U.S. on November 5, 2011, for One Night Only, as a Commission of the Internationally Acclaimed New York Biennial, Performa 11
The Sharjah Art Foundation will premiere Visiting Tarab in the United Arab Emirates in March 2012.
Visiting Tarab is supported by Performa Producers Circle members Carla Chamas and Judi Roaman, and by Nayla Hadchiti, and Hutham Olayan.
For more information please visit:
http://11.performa-arts.org/event/tarek-atoui-performa-commission
http://tarekatoui.com/projects/visiting-tarab
http://www.visitingtarab.com/