Cevdet Erek, Bergama Stereo

The Turkish artist and musician Cevdet Erek has gained international renown for his sound installations. In 2012 he was invited to present his installation “Room of Rhythms” at the documenta, and in that same year, he received the Nam June Paik Award for Media Art by the Kunststiftung NRW. In 2017 he represented Turkey at the Venice Biennale. Based on the history of the Pergamon Altar in Berlin, Cevdet Erek has now developed a sound and architectural installation entitled “Bergama Stereo”. Bergama is the present-day name of the ancient city of Pergamon in western Turkey. After the discovery of the Hellenistic altar construction in Pergamon during the time of the German empire, a special museum was built to display the items. Today the Pergamon Museum remains one of the most frequented museums in Berlin. The famous gigantomachy frieze of the altar will be interpreted with a multichannel sound composition that will fill the space. Sound here assumes the central role in creating an architecture that visitors perceive acoustically as they move through the space.
The “Bergama Stereo” installation will be presented for the first time in the monumental industrial complex of the Turbine Hall in Bochum during the Ruhrtriennale in 2019. The Ruhr region played an integral role in the economic development of the German empire at the end of the 19th century, and today it is home to Germany’s largest Turkish community. The historical hall of the Hamburg Bahnhof in Berlin will serve as the exhibition’s second presentation venue. The installation will be presented there in conjunction with the series “Works of Music by Visual Artists”. A concert and performance programme is planned at both exhibition venues. Musicians and DJs will play and perform music that responds to the rhythmic composition of “Bergama Stereo”.

Artist: Cevdet Erek (TR)
Curators: Ingrid Buschmann, Gabriele Knapstein, Matthias Osterwold