05.02.2015

Portikus is pleased to present Taraban, a concert piece by the Egyptian artist and musician Hassan Khan. Khan’s work shifts between different mediums comprising objects, text, moving image, installations, and performances. In addition, Khan is an active practicing musician since the early 1990s and has been involved over the years with various bands and duos, as well as composing soundtracks for theater and film. He also tours extensively performing his own solo music pieces. Khan currently holds a guest professorship at Städelschule – Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Frankfurt. Now, at Portikus, Hassan Khan takes two early twentieth century Egyptian songs by Youssef El Manialawy as point of departure for this music concert titled Taraban. Khan has worked with classical Arabic musicians, instruments (Oud, Qanoun, Violin, and Riqq), and singers to lay down melodic patterns developed from the modes and transitions used in the original songs to produce a new re-articulation of these pieces. The multi-tracked structure is mixed and treated live in relation to improvisation on a feedbacking mixer. Khan uses a battery of filters, processors, laptop manipulation, virtual synthesizers, feedbacking mixers, and live microphones in tandem with pre-composed and recorded sections. The music performed is original and live without the use of samples or loops.

We are pleased that the MMK dedicates a solo exhibition to Hassan Khan concurrently to his concert at Portikus (“Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said”, MMK 3, January 30 – April 12, 2015, curated by Klaus Görner and Philippe Pirotte). The exhibition at MMK and Khan's guest professorship at the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste – Städelschule is kindly supported by BHF-BANK-Stiftung within the scope of the Frankfurter Positionen 2015.

Hassan Khan (* 1975) is an artist, musician, and writer. He lives and works in Cairo, Egypt. Recent exhibitions include: Hassan Khan, Kodak Passageway, D-CAF, Cairo 2014; The Unrest of Forms, Secession, Vienna 2013; Hassan Khan, SALT, Istanbul 2012; Documenta 13, Kassel 2012; Intense Proximity, Paris Triennial 2012; and The Ungovernables, New Museum Triennial, New Museum, New York 2012. In October 2013 for the Nuit Blanche Festival Khan premiered Composition for a Public Park a large-scale multichannel music and lights installation at the Parc du Belleville in Paris. He also regularly performs his own music live; recent appearances include: Oslo 10, Basel 2014; L'eveil du Printemps, Toulouse 2014; Klangzeit Festival, Münster 2014; Maerz Musik Festival, Berlin 2013; Ghetto, Istanbul, 2013; Auditorium du Louvre, Paris 2012; Teatro Fondamenta Nuove, Venice, 2012; and as the opening act for the 1st D-CAF Festival, Cairo, 2012. His publications include The Agreement (2011) and Nine Lessons Learned from Sherif El Azma (2009).

The concert is kindly supported by Linklaters.