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NEVIN ALADAG
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27.06.2017

Nevin Aladağ

Trained as a sculptor, Aladağ’s work often involves sound as a means to explore the invisible yet very real social and political boundaries that govern public spaces and interactions. For the Athens leg of documenta 14, Aladağ built musical instruments out of vintage wooden furniture, invoking cosy, domestic interiors, which were played by musicians at the Athens Conservatoire—where they are installed—on opening day. A similar motif also features in her work for Venice, where she’s showing a video collage of instruments ingeniously set up on the streets of Stuttgart, where she grew up, so that they seem to play themselves—for example, a tambourine shaking because it is attached to the head of a playground rocking horse. In Kassel, Aladağ drew on the ornamental geometries of Jalis—perforated screens used as architectural elements—recreated in glazed ceramics in soft pastels, the preferred hues for bathroom tiles in 1950s Germany.