Nevin Aladağ | Marsch: Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland

For the back wall of Kunsthalle Basel, Nevin Aladağ conceived the installation Marsch. The wall serves as an oversized 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. Its musical motifs imitate “Ottoman” percussion instruments as employed in Janissary music (a term denoting the music of the Ottoman military).

Aladağ frees Mozart’s 'Turkish March' from its rigorous structure and renounces all indications as to how it should be played. The interpretation of this march thus navigates between strategy and chance, a situation that is comparable with the dynamics of a military conflict. Aladağ's Marsch thus fuses making a mark, as originally signified by the word “march”, with the history of a musical motif that was extracted from its functional, military context and, overstepping cultural boundaries, was sublimated and depoliticized by the high art of another nation. The clear sculptural decisions made by Nevin Aladag render this complexity visible. 

Text by Ruth Kissling