Ready to Go مستعد للرحيل

In her analysis of Sameh Al Tawil’s "Ready to Go" project from Sameh Al Tawil: The Monograph (2024), art critic Fatma Ali explores the intricate interplay between music, performance, and installation art. Al Tawil's work, performed across multiple venues between 2013 and 2023, centers on the metaphor of departure, using the piano and live music as vehicles for artistic expression. The performance merges kinetic movement with spatial installation, transforming as the musician and instrument are wrapped in transparent plastic, symbolically encapsulating the music and performer within an evolving sculptural form.

Ali highlights the tension between containment and liberation, as the plastic wrap both restricts and redefines the music. Despite physical constraints, the music resists being confined, creating a sense of continuous flow that transcends the boundaries of the wrapping process. The performance is described as a spiritual journey, where Al Tawil’s physical interaction with the piano becomes a form of self-exploration. His improvisational compositions—blending diverse cultural references from Islamic calls to prayer to Algerian music—reflect the personal and autobiographical elements of the work.

The wrapping process, reminiscent of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s environmental works, takes on a distinct conceptual layer in Al Tawil’s hands, turning the music and performer into a unified object, visually transforming the space. Ali’s analysis emphasizes the performative transformation of the work from a live event to a structural installation, where the musician’s body and the music remain intertwined, creating an "enveloping presence" that challenges the audience's perception of time, space, and sound.