Invitation to a press conference | Nevin Aladağ – Music Room

08 March 2018

[Translate to English:] Nevin Aladağ – Music Room

Ausstellung der 11. Preisträgerin des Ernst-Rietschel-Preises für Skulptur 2018

Nevin Aladağ (born in Van, Turkey in 1972, lives and works in Berlin) has been awarded the 11th Ernst Rietschel Prize for Sculpture. This year, the prize is being awarded for the first time by the Albertinum, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD), in association with the Antonius Jugend- und Kulturförderung, which has donated the prize money.

  • DATES 15/03/2018—15/07/2018

[Translate to English:] Nevin Aladağ – Musikzimmer

In Nevin Aladağ’s works, questions of family background, of self-perception and how one is perceived by others, as well as how music acts as a bearer of cultural identity play a major role. In many of her works she uses sculptural and performative means in order to produce sounds and tones which she then utilises for rhythmic compositions.

Abbildung der Künstlerin Nevin Aladağ mit einem ihrer Musikinstrumente
© Trevor Good
Nevin Aladağ

[Translate to English:] Nevin Aladağ – Musikzimmer

For the exhibition, which is shown in the Mosaiksaal of the Albertinum, the artist has selected two works: “Music Room” and “Raise the Roof”. The sculptural objects of “Music Room” subtly combine form and function. In collaboration with instrument makers, Aladağ has taken old items of furniture and transformed them into musical instruments which can be used both for their original function as well as unusual sound-producing devices. The item of furniture is transformed by the music performed on it, turning it unexpectedly into a poetic resonating body.

[Translate to English:] text

The second work consists of free-standing pedestals topped by copper sheets. At the 2017 Venice Biennale, Nevin Aladağ produced the performance entitled “Raise the Roof”. Seven dancers wearing stiletto heels left imprints on the copper sheets by dancing to various songs which the audience could not hear – the titles of the songs were, however, written on the T-shirts worn by the dancers, for example “Enjoy the Silence” by Depeche Mode. All that could be heard was the rhythmic sound of the stiletto shoes. The impressions created by the heels and the traces of the dancing were embedded in the metal as an ornamental motif – divested of any reference to their acoustic origins, the relief panels have now taken on a sculptural life of their own.

Ansicht einer Kupferplatte, die durch eine Tänzerin mit Schuhen mit Stiletto-Absätzen eingedellt worden ist
© Trevor Good
Nevin Aladağ, Raise the Roof, 2017

[Translate to English:] Nevin Aladağ – Musikzimmer

The Ernst Rietschel Prize for Sculpture
This prize, which has been in existence since 1991 and is awarded every two years, is assigned to artists who specialise in the field of sculpture. Until 2013 the prize was organised by the Ernst Rietschel Kulturring in Pulsnitz in memory of the sculptor Ernst Rietschel (1804–1861), who was born in this town. Thanks to the monument to Goethe and Schiller in Weimar or the Luther monument on the Neumarkt in Dresden, Rietschel is regarded as one of the most important German sculptors of the Late Neoclassical period, and his sculptures had a formative influence on the image of Germany as the land of poets and philosophers. Previous winners of this prize awarded in his memory include Johannes Wald (2013), Axel Anklam (2010), Emil Cimiotti (2006) and Werner Stötzer (1994). Through its association with the Albertinum, the prize has taken on a new direction based on an expanded concept of sculpture.

Catalog:
NEVIN ALADAĞ – MUSIKZIMMER. 11. ERNST-RIETSCHEL-PREIS FÜR SKULPTUR 2018, published by edition metzel (München 2018), ed. by Astrid Nielsen and Hilke Wagner, 64 pages, 35 colored illustrations, partly in English language, ISBN 978-3-88960-173-5, 9,90 EUR (museum edition).

The SKD will communicate on social media with the hashtags #nevinaladag, #musicroom, #raisetheroof, #albertinum and #skdmuseum.

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