DUBLIN.- The Irish Museum of Modern Art presents the first solo exhibition in Ireland by Tarek Atoui, Lebanese sound artist and composer, opening on Saturday 21 February 2026. Based in Paris, Atoui is known for his innovative approach to sound, performance, and instrument-making. His work often explores the physicality of sound and the act of listening, creating immersive experiences that challenge traditional boundaries between artist, audience, and instrument. Atoui frequently collaborates with musicians, instrument makers, and people with diverse hearing abilities, emphasising inclusivity and experimentation.

Atoui’s exhibition at IMMA is presented across two sites, an installation, Souffle Continu, in the Baroque Chapel that focuses on the tactile quality of the sound, vibration, and movement of “wind instruments”; and in the gallery spaces Sunflowers presents a series of works inspired by the rhythmic and material traditions of Korean drumming.

In the Chapel the installation Souffle Continu foregrounds the tactile nature of sound, its vibrations, movements, and material force through a series of wind instruments: Organ Within and Wind Houses (#1 & #2). The artistic vision behind Souffle Continu is “a set of possibilities and a potential sound generator that can produce a multitude of music pieces, collective situations, and interpretations”. Atoui commenced his research on this type of work in 2013, in dialogue with deaf students, resulting in the development of an initial body of works entitled WITHIN. The intention was to introduce the audience to a sonic experience based not so much on auditory perception, but rather on a physical, visual, and gestural one. Each object is the result of collaborations with musicians and artisans, while its “playability” has been explored through various workshops with educators and students.

Organ Within emerged from a collaboration with musician Léo Maurel and artist Vincent Martial and their research on pipe organs in churches, modular synthesizers, and the perception of tones by deaf people. Air, channelled in pipes spread out like tentacles on the ground, produces amplified vibrations that generate low frequencies, perceptible not only to the ear but also as physical sensations in the listener’s body. Here, Organ Within is presented together with reed-boxes, small instruments shaped like wooden boxes assembled using materials with different acoustic properties that produce melodies.

Wind House #1 and #2 are sound rooms that visitors are invited to enter. Wind House #1 was inspired by SubBass Prototone, an experimental two metre by two metre organ pipe (whose measurements Atoui replicated) built by instrumentalist Johannes Goebel in the 1980s. Wind House #2 has a more elongated shape that creates a different reverberation of sound in space. In both works, a pane that slides vertically serves as the sound device, creating different tones depending on the amount of wind entering the room by a compressor. Sound wave vibrations are propagated through the surfaces of the chambers, and transmitted through the visitor’s body, who becomes part of the musical instrument.

In Gallery 3 Atoui introduces a body of work Sunflowers, 2024-2025 inspired by the rhythmic and material traditions of Korean drumming. Sunflowers also act as listening devices recalibrating the sounds within the gallery spaces. The galleries are conceived as both an immersive listening environment and a site of collective production, inviting audiences to engage in workshops to generate their own sonic materials. In Room 2, Atoui presents The Whisperers (2021–2022), a project centered on improvisation, attentiveness, and collective listening. Whispering Playground, 2021 is a water-based circuit that channels sound and vibration from multiple sources, including industrial noise, flowing water, percussion, and vinyl recordings. The Whisperers will be activated through a series of workshops led by IMMA’s Visitor Engagement Team, offering opportunities for learning, experimentation, and shared discovery.

Mary Cremin, Head of Programming at IMMA said: “At IMMA, we are thrilled to present Tarek Atoui’s work in Ireland for the very first time. Rooted in improvisation, activation and deep listening, his practice unfolds through richly layered sensory and cognitive experiences that invite active participation. We are especially excited by his selection for the Hyundai Commission at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall and delighted that audiences can encounter his work at IMMA prior to this landmark installation in 2026.”