Tarek Atoui: At-Tāriq

The exhibition and research project by Tarek Atoui explores the concept of hospitality. The Title, “At-Tāriq”, meaning “The Nightcomer” or “The Morning Star”, embodies “poetic hospitality”, a spirit of collaboration, shared sensibilities, and evolving alliances. The idea draws from the “Majlis”, the traditional space of hospitality in Arab and North African homes, where the night fosters intimacy, the unknown, and the poetic.

In “At-Tāriq: The Tamazgha Chapter”, Atoui delves into rural musical traditions along the sub-Saharan pilgrimage and trade routes. This first iteration takes us to “Tamazgha”, the ancestral “Amazigh” lands—more than a homeland, it is a wellspring of musical, artistic, and intellectual traditions. Developed through two years of exchange with musicians and artisans from Morocco’s Atlas region and beyond, “At-Tāriq” at MNTB forms a space of poetic hospitality shaped around the Majlis—a setting that welcomes, resonates, and fosters new connections. Here, music itself becomes hospitable. Through layered sonic and material textures, the exhibition invites guests to move between tradition and modernity, the familiar and the unknown, awakening a nomadic spirit.

Ahead of the Madrid exhibition, Atoui presented “Forgotten Tales Through Time” on 31 January at Monde des Arts de la Parure, as part of the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair. This first collaboration with musicians from Ouarzazate and Zagora blended Amazigh traditions with Atoui’s electro-acoustic experimentation, celebrating oral storytelling through hypnotic rhythms. On 3 March at ARCO International Art Fair, Atoui reunites with the Moroccan ensemble, joined by percussionist Susie Ibarra, musician Nancy Mounir, and DJ-composer Ziúr, expanding the exhibition’s evolving soundscape.