Combining visual, tactile, and aural modes of perceiving sound, The GROUND is a variable sonic space, the result of five years of travel the artist undertook in the Pearl River Delta in China. During this time, Atoui recorded his observations of contemporary and traditional agricultural, architectural, and musical practices from the region in a booklet that he then shared with craftmen and instrument-makers to respond to. The resulting ten instruments were set up by Atoui to play separetely and autonomously at exhibitions first in Guangzhou and later in Singapore, where various artists and musicians were invited to respond to both the forms and sounds of the work. Most recently, the piece was set up as part of Composing/Public/Space, Atoui's research platform at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. At the Venice Biennal in 2019, The GROUND is presented as a finished composition and listening space, based on the project's accumulations from previous iterations. For the duration of the exhibition, the compositional principles found in The GROUND are used as starting points for a monthly changing program of practices and encounters, conceived by Atoui and members of Composing/Public/Space, in and outside the Venice Biennal.