Nevin Aladag

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Exhibition view 'Sculpture 21st: Nevin Aladağ', Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg 2021 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2021, Foto: Frank Vinken

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On the occasion of the exhibition 'Sculpture 21st: Nevin Aladag' the musician Christoph Lamberty is playing Nevin Aladag's music instrument sculpture 'Resonator Percussion' at the Lehmbruck Musem in Duisburg, Germany. © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2021, Foto: Frank Vinken

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Exhibition view 'Sculpture 21st: Nevin Aladağ', Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg 2021 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2021, Foto: Frank Vinken

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Exhibition view 'Sculpture 21st: Nevin Aladağ', Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg 2021 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2021, Foto: Frank Vinken

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Installation view 'New Work: Nevin Aladag', SFMOMA, San Francisco, USA, 2020, Photo: Katherine Du Tiel

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Installation view 'New Work: Nevin Aladag', SFMOMA, San Francisco, USA, 2020, Photo: Katherine Du Tiel

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Installation view 'New Work: Nevin Aladag', SFMOMA, San Francisco, USA, 2020, Photo: Katherine Du Tiel

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Installation view 'New Work: Nevin Aladag', SFMOMA, San Francisco, USA, 2020, Photo: Katherine Du Tiel

<i>Resonator Wind</i>,
2019<br />
brass, bamboo cane, mouthspieces of different wind instruments, various metals,
80 x 100 x 100 cm<br />

<i>Resonator Wind (detail)</i>,
2019<br />

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<i>Resonator Percussion</i>,
2019<br />
stainless steel, plywood, leather, bronze,
95 x 100 x 100 cm<br />

<i>Resonator Percussion (detail)</i>,
2019<br />

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<i>Resonator Strings</i>,
2019<br />
plywood, spruce, multiplex, paint, zither strings, bass guitar strings, cello strings and mechanisms, amplification option,
82 x 85 x 100 cm<br />

<i>Resonator Strings (alternate view)</i>,
2019<br />

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<i>Resonator</i>, 2018<br />
wood, metal, harp, chimes, drums, didgeridoos, aabguitar, mame and strings, goatskin,
314 x 242 x 228 cm<br />
Activation at

<i>Resonator Strings (alternate view)</i>,
2019<br />

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<i>Resonator</i>,
2018<br />
wood, metal, harp, chimes, drums, didgeridoos, aabguitar, mame and strings, goatskin,
314 x 242 x 228 cm<br />
Installation view

<i>Pattern Kinship, Screen, Moonlight (backside)</i>,
2019<br />

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<i>Pattern Kinship, Screen, Moonlight</i>,
2019<br />
waterjet cut aluminium, acrylic paint, powder coated aluminium,
211 x 117 x 100 cm<br />

<i>Resonator</i>,
2018<br />
wood, metal, harp, chimes, drums, didgeridoos, aabguitar, mame and strings, goatskin,
314 x 242 x 228 cm<br />
Installation view

<i>Pattern Kinship, flow</i>,
2019<br />
waterjet cut aluminium, acrylic paint,
ø 160 x 1 cm<br />

<i>Pattern Kinship, dandelion</i>,
2019<br />
waterjet cut aluminium, acrylic,
ø 150 x 1 cm<br />

<i>Pattern Kinship, river</i>,
2019<br />
waterjet cut aluminium, acrylic,
ø 150 x 1 cm<br />

<i>Pattern Kinship, pollen</i>,
2018<br />
waterjet cut aluminium, acrylic paint,
t = 1, Ø 160 cm<br />

<i>Pattern Kinship III</i>,
2017<br />
Waterjet cut aluminium, acrylic paint,
120 x 120 x 1 cm<br />

<i>Pattern Kinship Pyramid</i>,
2017<br />
waterjet cut aluminium, acrylic paint,
198 x 132 x 1 cm<br />

<i>Pattern Kinship [Musterverwandtschaft]</i>,
2016<br />
Aluminium,
190 x 130 cm<br />
Pattern Kinship [Musterverwandtschaft] showcases a diverse landscape of ornaments and patterns, which intentionally were used in different cultures as Venetian blinds to secure intimacy and privacy. As objects in space, detached of their original setting, they become exceptional/new elements of form, questioning human practices of protecting the private sphere. Aladağ has continuously worked on notion of social (in-)visibility and undermined a predetermined gaze on what is conceived as oriental and what is regarded as western. Her new series offers a juxtaposition of architectural forms that in reality could not have met, being from different geographical origins and from various times. Yet, as in her earlier „Pattern Matching“ series it is precisely and only in her works that a historically impossible blend of divers styles and forms generates a unique new hybrid.

<i>Social Fabric, jungle</i>,
2018<br />
carpet pieces on wood,
172 x 116 x 6 cm<br />

<i>Social Fabric, Wind</i>,
2019<br />
carpet pieces on wood,
172 x 112 x 5 cm<br />

<i>Social Fabric, Percussion</i>,
2019<br />
carpet pieces on wood,
172 x 112 x 5 cm<br />

<i>Social Fabric, Strings</i>,
2019<br />
carpet pieces on wood,
172 x 112 x 5 cm<br />

<i>Social Fabric, Resonator</i>,
2019<br />
carpet pieces on wood,
172 x 112 x 5 cm<br />

<i>Social Fabric, Ieaves</i>,
2018<br />
carpet pieces on wood,
172 x 116 cm<br />

<i>Social Fabric, flower power</i>,
2018<br />
carpet pieces on wood,
172 x 116 x 6 cm<br />

<i>Social Fabric, cosmos</i>,
2018<br />
carpet pieces on wood,
172 x 116 x 6 cm<br />

<i>Installation view, 'And Berlin Will Always Need You', Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany</i>,
2019<br />

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Photo: Trevor Good

<i>Social Fabric: Spring Fields and Social Fabric: Spring Signs</i>,
2019<br />
Carpet laid on wood,
235 x 155 x 6 cm<br />
Installation view, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany, 2019

<i>Jali</i>,
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glazed ceramics,
220 x 650 x 14 cm<br />
Installation view: documenta 14 Kassel, Germany and Athens, Greece

<i>Social Fabric, pink bow and Social Fabric, pink arrow</i>,
2018<br />
carpet pieces on wood,
250 x 150 cm x 2<br />
Installation view, Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf, Germany, 2018

<i>Jali</i>,
2017<br />
Glazed Ceramics,
220 x 650 x 14 cm<br />
Installation view: documenta 14 Kassel, Germany and Athens, Greece

<i>Installation view, 'And Berlin Will Always Need You', Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany</i>,
2019<br />

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Photo: Trevor Good

<i>Jali</i>,
2017<br />
Glazed Ceramics (detail),
220 x 650 x 14 cm<br />

<i>Jali Blossom Hedge</i>,
2018<br />
glazed ceramics,
135 x 120 x 200 cm<br />
Menlo Park, California, U.S.A

<i>Jali Blossom Shamrock</i>,
2018<br />
glazed ceramics,
150 x 280 x 280 cm<br />
Menlo Park, California, U.S.A

<i>Jali Blossom Pyramid</i>,
2018<br />
glazed ceramics,
150 x 200 x 200 cm<br />
Menlo Park, California, U.S.A

<i>Jali</i>,
2018<br />
glazed ceramic, powder coated steel,
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Installation view, 'Muster', WENTRUP, Berlin, Germany, 2018

<i>Jali</i>,
2018<br />
glazed ceramic, powder coated steel,
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Installation view ‚Muster‘, WENTRUP, Berlin, Germany, 2018

<i>Jali Arrow 2</i>,
2018<br />
glazed ceramic, powder coated steel,
158 x 113 x 13 cm<br />

<i>Jali Arrow 2</i>,
2018<br />
glazed ceramic, powder coated steel,
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detail

<i>Jali Arrow 2</i>,
2018<br />
alternate view,
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<i>Jali Tree 1</i>,
2018<br />
glazed ceramic, powder coated steel,
113 x 113 x 15 cm<br />

<i>Jali Tree 1</i>,
2018<br />
glazed ceramic, powder coated steel,
113 x 113 x 15 cm<br />
alterate view

<i>Jali Ring 1</i>,
2018<br />
glazed ceramic, powder coated steel,
76 x 71 x 15 cm<br />

<i>Raise the Roof (Venice)</i>, 2017<br />
Performance, 57th International Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy, 2017,
8:24 min<br />
For the 57th International Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia Nevin Aladağ restages

<i>Raise the Roof (Venice)</i>,
2017<br />
Performance, 57th International Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy, 2017,
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<i>Raise the Roof (Venice)</i>,
2017<br />
Performance, 57th International Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy, 2017, 8:24 min,
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<i>Stiletto / Woman of the Ghetto, 8:24 min (Performance 'Raise the Roof', Venice Biennial 2017, May 9th 2017, 3 pm)</i>,
2017<br />
Copperplate, Wooden Frame,
100 x 100 x 5 cm<br />

<i>Stiletto / Drunk in Love, 6:21 min (Performance 'Raise the Roof', Venice Biennial 2017, May 9th 2017, 3 pm)</i>,
2017<br />
Copperplate, Wooden Frame,
100 x 100 x 5 cm<br />

<i>Stiletto / Enjoy The Silence, 6:03 min (Performance 'Raise the Roof', Venice Biennial 2017, May 9th 2017, 3 pm)</i>,
2017<br />
Copperplate, Wooden Frame,
100 x 100 x 5 cm<br />

<i>Music Room (Athens)</i>,
2017<br />
Installation view, documenta 14, Athens, Greece, 2017,
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<i>Music Room (Athens)</i>, 2017<br />
Rehearsal documenta 14, Athens, Greece, 2017,
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Video by Trevor Good

<i>Music Room (Athens)</i>,
2017<br />
Installation view, documenta 14, Athens, Greece, 2017,
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Aladağ's installation “Musikzimmer” (Music Room) consists out of interior objects, chairs, umbrella stands or coffee tables that Aladağ had altered by professional instrument builders. A mid-century armchair suddenly becomes a plucked string instrument as in „armchair, concert guitar“ for example. The concept of Hausmusik (home music) usually describes a tradition of having concerts at private houses that became popular during 18th century. While chamber music (Kammermusik) was mostly reserved for royalty, the rise of Hausmusik and the Musikzimmer developed parallel to the rise of power of the bourgeoisie. Nevin Aladağ offers with her „Musikzimmer“ an exciting metamorphoses and actualization of this history. And not at last, when seated in the arm chair, the human body of the sitter function as its own resonator.

<i>Music Room, Brussels</i>,
2015<br />
Installation view Albertinum, Dresden, Germany, 2018,
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<i>Side Table Harp (from the series Music Room, Athens)</i>,
2017<br />
Wood, Harp strings, amplification option,
66 x Ø 40 cm<br />

<i>Table Santouri (from the series Music Room, Athens)</i>,
2017<br />
Wood, strings, Santouri mechanism, two ornamental plates in horn,
58.5 x Ø 77,5 cm<br />

<i>Table Chimes (from the series Music Room, Athens)</i>,
2017<br />
wood, four sets of metal chimes,
66 x 90 x 57 cm<br />

<i>Couch Flamenco Guitar and Mandolin (from the series Music Room, Athens)</i>,
2017<br />
Wood, Flamenco strings and mechanism on one side oak frame the couch and mandolin mechanism on the other side, amplification option,
61 x 127 x 68 cm<br />

<i>Chair Lyra (from the series Music Room, Athens)</i>,
2017<br />
Wood, 6 strings, coconut, amplification option,
91 x 41 x 42 cm<br />

<i>Armchair Western Guitar (from the series Music Room, Athens)</i>,
2017<br />
Wood, Western guitar strings and mechanism on both sides, amplification option,
73 x 69 x 74 cm<br />

<i>Umbrella Stand Drum (from the series Music Room, Berlin)</i>,
2015<br />
Inspired by Art Deco produced in the 70s, metal, cow skin, rope,
47 x 48 x 19 cm<br />

<i>Hanger Harp (from the series Music Room, Istanbul)</i>,
2014<br />
Wood, harp strings,
180 x 67.5 x ø 67.5 cm<br />

<i>Chair Harp (from the series Music Room, Brussels)</i>,
2015<br />
Scandinavian Designer chair from the 70s, teakwood, straw, harp strings,
75 x 52 x 50 cm<br />

<i>Screen I–III</i>,
2016<br />
Cobblestones, steel frames, stainless steel grid; 310 x 150 x 15 cm,
Installation, Kunstplatz Graben, Vienna, Austria, 2016 (Photo by Iris Ranziger)<br />

<i>Screen I–III</i>,
2016<br />
Cobblestones, steel frames, stainless steel grid; 310 x 150 x 15 cm,
Installation, Kunstplatz Graben, Vienna, Austria, 2016 (Photo by Iris Ranziger)<br />

<i>Screen I–III</i>,
2016<br />
Cobblestones, steel frames, stainless steel grid, 310 x 150 x 15 cm,
Installation, Kunstplatz Graben, Vienna, Austria, 2016 (Photo by Iris Ranziger)<br />
Screen I–III

<i>Screen II and Pattern Matching (yellow-blue)</i>,
2016 and 2015<br />
Installation view, Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf, Germany, 2018,
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<i>Pattern Matching Grey Beige</i>,
2010<br />
Carpet pieces,
150 x 256 cm<br />

<i>Pattern Matching Blue</i>,
2010<br />
Kilims from Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey; hand-woven carpets from Iraq and India & industrially knotted carpets from Germany and China,
256 x 150 cm<br />
“Pattern Matching” brings together the seemingly disparate subjects of basketball, the famous American athletic export, and Oriental carpets, probably the most successful commercial product in the world that originates from the Middle East. Setting differences aside, lets consider these two incommensurable categories—the game and the object of everyday use—as two cultural expressions, in order to make the matching of their respective patterns possible and productive. Aladağ densely filled her carpets with a collage of ornamentation while respecting the lines and color fields that define the borders and mark important points on a basketball court. The artist proposes that we consider such patterns in the widest possible sense, going beyond their visual appearance: thus, they conjure conflicting patterns of behavior, opposing lifestyles and mutually exclusive rules that give shape to social and political realities of our supposedly globalized world and its distinctly local manifestations. By overlapping or “matching” the patterns that belong to different semantic orders— that of the “Western” game and the “Oriental” ornament—Aladağ produces a soft clash of meanings. The resulting hybrid objects, made of cut-out parts of existing carpets that are produced anywhere from Maghreb to China, Germany to Iraq, serve as evidence of conflicting ways of being and reveal patterns that don't match: mass event versus domesticity, action versus leisure, professional athletic games dominated by men versus women's domestic work, entertainment (as a secular religion) versus religion itself, the US versus the “rogue” states (that produce carpets) and perhaps even war versus peace... Each carpet displays a unique composition of colors and ornament, though the basic linear structure on which the colors and patterns are laid out remains the same for each piece. Meanings change, it seems, but the patterns still match, somehow. (excerpt from the text by Adam Szymczyk).

<i>Paravent, Social Fabric #3</i>,
2013<br />
Collage with carpets of different origin and production conditions. From knotted kelims, virgin wool and silk carpets to industrially manufactured Tretford, Sisal and wool carpets,
180 x 245 x 4 cm<br />
The subject of borders and transgressing borders is here not just addressed in terms of content, but also formally. The framework of this order are the rational and strict forms of Bauhaus/de Stijl. Nevin Aladağ stages the carpet, one usually passes on foot, vertically, as a pane that constitutes a space – that of the paravent or folding screen. The folding screen serves as protection: originally as wind barrier in China; in western countries it protects the private and intimate from the gaze of strangers. The initially horizontal form of the carpet is brought into a vertical position by the artist, thus blurring the categories of picture and sculpture and changing how they are read. A top view becomes a horizontal view, and we can only read the entire image by walking through the individual motifs. Aladağ here runs through the various connotations of ‘social fabric’: social spaces are constituted by social fabrics, i.e. the demographic, historical, and cultural segments that constitute the structure of a society. This form of social fabric manifests itself simultaneously in Aladağ’s objects in the very concrete fabric, the individual fibres from which the narratives are spun in every single carpet. All segments of Aladağ’s object have a contemporary origin, even though formal references suggest various temporalities; questions about the concrete conditions of production, globalised trade, and post-colonial perspectives are thus introduced into the work as well. In her presentation, Aladağ yields to a democratic impulse – provenance and quality are subjected to the purely formal and aesthetic construction. In

<i>Läufer [Rug] (serial)</i>,
2014<br />
Carpet,
67 x 2000 cm<br />
Installation view Art Space Pythagorion, Pythagóreio, Samos, Greece, 2014 (Photo by Stathis Mamalakis)

<i>Leaning Wall</i>,
2014<br />
Imprints of female and male body parts cast in colour-glazed Meissen porcelain,
various sizes<br />
Site specific installation at Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany, 2014/2015

<i>Leaning Wall (21)</i>,
2013/2017<br />
Imprints of female and male body parts cast in colour-glazed Meissen porcelain,
various sizes<br />
The work consists of imprints of female and male body parts cast in ceramic. The pieces spread along the wall of the gallery like a climbing wall, inviting viewers to lean on, to see how their own body fits into this assemblage, which may well represent the average of society. Each viewer will surely find shapes that match and others that are completely at odds with his own body. They oscillate between the individual and the universal, they show a pattern – and the freedom to break away from it.

<i>Leaning Wall (6)</i>,
2013/2014<br />
Imprints of female and male body parts cast in colour-glazed Meissen porcelain,
various sizes<br />

<i>

, 2007
Performance, “Abwehr Performance - Festival”, Berlin, Germany, 2007, 5:42 min
Four female dancers move, each one for herself, to songs that cannot be heard by the viewer. With their stiletto heels they appear to tear up the tar covered rooftop; the electronically amplified sound of these charged dance steps create a new wild hearing experience, which in turn unites the isolated movement of the dancers. The performance takes place on a former border section between West and East Berlin; this roof served as a patrol route for GDR border soldiers and was heavily guarded. (excerpt from the text by Anke Hoffmann). ">

<i>Traces</i>, 2015<br />
3-channel video installation, HD video, each audio channel mono, each film 6 min,
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<i>Traces</i>,
2015<br />
3-channel video installation, HD video, each audio channel mono, each film 6 min,
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Kunstmuseum Stuttgart Sparda-Kunstpreis »Kubus« 15. Mai 2015 - 13. September 2015. Nevin Aladag, Peter Vogel, Discoteca Flaming Star.

<i>Traces</i>,
2015<br />
3-channel video installation, HD video, each audio channel mono, each film 6 min,
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Installation view, Wentrup, Berlin, Germany, 2015

<i>Session</i>, 2013<br />
HD video, 3 channel video installation, 6 min, loop,
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The six-minute 3-channel video work

<i>Session</i>,
2013<br />
HD video, 3 channel video installation, 6min, loop,
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Installation view, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany, 2015

<i>Session</i>,
2013<br />
Installation view Sharjah Biennial 11, United Arab Emirates, 2013,
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<i>Marsch</i>,
2014<br />
94 bullet segments, cast iron, diameter 16 cm,
Installation view Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland, 2014<br />
For the back wall of Kunsthalle Basel, the artist has conceived the installation „Marsch“. The wall serves as an outsize sheet of music that shows the opening bars of the Rondo alla Turca by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Also known as the Turkish March, the Rondo “in the Turkish style” was composed by Mozart in 1783/84 as the last movement of his Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major (KV 331). Its musical motifs imitate “Ottoman” percussion instruments as employed in Janissary music (a term denoting the music of the Ottoman military). Nevin Aladağ represents the heads of the notes by means of cast-iron hemispheres that are based on an original cannonball preserved in the Historical Museum in Basel. Their volumes vary, giving the impression that they have been fired at the wall with varying degrees of force. Aladağ thereby calls to mind the true purpose of military music: its primary function is to dictate the choreography of troop movements, both on the battlefield and in peacetime parades. The time signature determines the marching speed and formation of the soldiers. The psychological role of military music is equally relevant: it is intended to reinforce esprit de corps and at the same time intimidate the opponent.

<i>Marsch</i>,
2014<br />
Installation view Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland, 2014,
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<i>Tusch 1 (left) and Tusch 2 (right)</i>,
2015<br />
bronze,
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Installation view Wentrup, Berlin, Germany, 2015

<i>Makramé</i>,
2011<br />
Installation view, Wentrup, Berlin, Germany, 2011,
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<i>Makramé, current flow 1 and 2</i>,
2017<br />
power cable, loudspeaker cable, Lan cable, Telephone cable, copper, zinc, PVC,
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Installation view, Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf, Germany, 2018

<i>Makramé</i>,
2011<br />
Wire cable,
120 x 65 cm<br />

<i>Makramé</i>,
2014<br />
wire cable,
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detail

<i>City Language I / Şehir Sesi I</i>, 2009<br />
Video,
4:45 min<br />

<i>City Language II / Şehir Sesi II</i>,
2009<br />
8 Videos of 2 – 4 min,
second part of the trilogy<br />
In the video

<i>City Language III / Şehir Sesi III</i>,
2009<br />
Video loop,
0:42 min<br />

<i>Top View</i>, 2012<br />
HD video loop,
2:48 min<br />
For the video, Nevin Aladağ approached people of different ages, ethnicities, sexes, and social classes in the center of Munich and asked them to perform a few dance steps for the camera. Although the people in the film remain anonymous, and one sees little more than their shoes and the movements of their feet, even these tell a lot about people’s identities. Aladağ composed some fifty of the filmed sequences into a loop whose sound is made up of heels clicking and soles scraping on the pavement of Munich’s sidewalks and squares.

<i>Rallye</i>, 2010<br />
Video,
6:20 min, Performance duration 3 hours<br />
Three professional racing cars drive through the quarry and the city center of Carrara in walking speed for approximately three hours.

<i>Familie Tezcan [The Tezcan Family]</i>, 2001<br />
Video,
6:40 min<br />