Art, Sound, Body – Nevin Aladağ’s Raise the Roof at the Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt
From June 29, 2025, to February 1, 2026, the Institut Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt is dedicating Raise the Roof, the first major solo exhibition of a contemporary artist in its historic exhibition building since its reopening in September 2024, to the internationally renowned installation and performance artist Nevin Aladağ (*1972, Van, Turkey; lives and works in Berlin).
In her multimedia works, Aladağ playfully and often humorously combines sculpture, painting, textiles, video, and sound. Using the principle of collage, she creates surprising connections – between art and music, as well as between geographies and cultures. The exhibition brings together around 40 works created between 2012 and 2025 across more than 1,000 square meters of exhibition space – including several new pieces being shown in a museum for the first time.
“The UNESCO World Heritage Site Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt is a vibrant place for dialogue between past and present, between art and society. Nevin Aladağ’s works vividly show how diversity, creativity, and cultural participation can be envisioned and lived today,” emphasizes Lord Mayor Hanno Benz.
The exhibition title Raise the Roof references a dance performance that was re-staged in 2017 for the Venice Biennale. But the meaning of the title goes far beyond that work: Raise the Roof not only signifies the literal lifting of a roof but also metaphorically suggests the shaking of a building. By playing with the dimensions of the exhibition space, Aladağ explores the potential of her works and of the venue itself, as the artist explains:
“Each of the four exhibition halls has a very distinctive character, which inspired us to spatially stage the various groups of works in a targeted way, allowing new cross-connections to emerge.”
Once the center of the Darmstadt Artists' Colony, the Mathildenhöhe has always been a place where art, design, and architecture – but also music, dance, and theater – have interacted and influenced one another. In her site-specific installation, Nevin Aladağ gives the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) a contemporary voice.
The four drums from the Resonating Space series, located in the foyer of the exhibition building, have been arranged by the artist in ever-changing constellations for different exhibitions. In Darmstadt, these wall-mounted musical instruments offer a symbolic preview of the four exhibition halls to follow:
“Nevin Aladağ’s works enter into a dynamic dialogue with the architecture of Joseph Maria Olbrich. Raise the Roof is not just an individual art experience – the exhibition creates spaces of resonance for reflecting on key topics of our time such as identity, migration, and community,” explains Dr. Sandra Bornemann-Quecke, curator of the exhibition and deputy director of the Institut Mathildenhöhe.
As visitors move through Raise the Roof, form and sound continually give rise to new spaces of experience. Upon entering Hall 1, it becomes clear how Nevin Aladağ sets genre boundaries in motion. The colorful wall objects from her new series Vibrating Images initially appear as static paintings. But built-in musical instruments transform the “vibrating images” into resonant bodies. In their silent state, they invite visual exploration – but when played by professional musicians, their vibrations extend into the space, making sound physically tangible.
In Hall 2, visitors immerse themselves in three video works – Session, Traces, and Jamming – presented as monumental three-channel installations on a loop. Each video portrays a city: Sharjah, Stuttgart, and Berlin. The camera focuses not on people, but on musical instruments that are played in interaction with the city and its environment. Through the interplay of motion and stillness, dissonance and consonance, these works create poetic reflections on global change and cultural polyphony.
The works in Hall 3 explore the community-building power of art and music. In the Resonator series, musical instruments from around the world are merged into abstract sound sculptures. Particularly striking is the Music Room Darmstadt, which Aladağ conceived specifically for this exhibition at the Mathildenhöhe: pieces of furniture from around 1900 – some from Darmstadt – are transformed into musical instruments through targeted modifications. When activated by musicians, Aladağ’s music room becomes a space for encounter, where history and the present intertwine.
Finally, the video work Raise the Roof sets the rhythm of a choreography in which Aladağ’s artworks merge with the architecture of Hall 4. Engaging with the cultural practices of making music, dancing, and playing, the artist explores individual (physical) experiences and sociocultural attributions.
The exhibition concludes with the large-scale sculpture Public Resonator. Originally designed for an outdoor space in Baden-Baden, this sound sculpture becomes a field of social resonance inside the exhibition building: here, visitors are invited to play, experiment, and improvise. With this call for collective participation, Nevin Aladağ conveys her essential artistic understanding of music and sound: “For me, music is a medium of communication – a constantly changing language.”
In the performance Body Instruments, developed by Nevin Aladağ for the public space and accompanying the opening on June 29, 2025, the body itself becomes an instrument. Additional performances will take place in Darmstadt on August 23 and October 18, 2025, moving from Friedensplatz through the marketplace to the Mathildenhöhe:
“With the performance Body Instruments, Nevin Aladağ goes beyond the Mathildenhöhe and into the urban community. Darmstadt stands for cultural diversity, openness, and innovation – values that connect people and are powerfully brought to life in the exhibition Raise the Roof,” says Dr. Philipp Gutbrod, Cultural Advisor of the City of Science Darmstadt and Director of the Institut Mathildenhöhe.
Olbrichweg 15
64287 Darmstadt
