Gilles Aubry and Zouheir Atbane

http://www.earpolitics.net/ http://molsawt.weebly.com/ and who sees the mystery, 2014 Following the repatriation in 2010 of the Paul Bowles Collection of Moroccan traditional music from Washington to Tangier, Zouheir Atbane and Gilles Aubry started a collaborative artistic research focused on the reception of these recordings in today’s Morocco, in relation to contemporary discourse about cultural preservation. The first outcome of this project is the sound installation “and who sees the mystery” following their residency in Tafraout, a village where Paul Bowles recorded an ‘Ahwach’ music performance in 1959. In collaboration with local musicians and other inhabitants, the artists deliver an interpretation of the return of these music recordings to their original location, including the documentation of listening sessions, discussions and musical practice. The work deals with the politics of invisibility by establishing correspondences between Paul Bowles as an ‘invisible spectator’, the veil as a strategy of resistance against colonialism by the women of the Addal music ensemble and the Pythagorean curtain of French acousmatic music. A few pictures of the installation “and who sees the mystery” by Aubry & Atbane at the “Why ain’t you rich if you’re so smart” group show at Marrakech Biennale 2014, ESAV Marrakech

Gilles Aubry is a Swiss sound artist who has lived in Berlin since 2002. Initially trained as a musician and composer, he graduated in 2010 as a Master student in Sound Studies at the University of the Arts in Berlin. His artistic practice is based on an auditory approach of reality informed by research on cultural and historical aspects of sound production and reception. In 2011, Aubry was a guest artist of the Global Prayers research project. His works and performances have been presented internationally, including at the FICA Foundation, New Delhi (2013), House of Electronic Arts, Basel (2013), Camera Austria, Graz (2012), Swiss Art Awards, Basel (2012), NGBK Gallery, Berlin (2011), Sonic Acts, Amsterdam (2010), Bat Yam Museum, Tel- Aviv (2010), Tuned Cities, Berlin (2010) and MACBA, Barcelona (2010). Zouheir Atbane, born in 1983 in Casablanca, is a contemporary dancer and sound artist. Starting with the study of Gnawa music, Zouheir‘s art practice has developed through numerous collaborations with the Casablanca-based dance company 2k_far and other artists. He now works as a freelance sound artist.