ON VIEW: 6th May, 2021 to 19th September, 2021
Nevin Aladag’s most recent works are fantastic musical instruments: Her ‘Resonator Percussion’ and ‘Resonator Wind’ are celebrating their German premiere at the Lehmbruck Museum. Her sound sculptures consist of various different instruments or rather their mouthpieces. ‘Resonator Wind’, which makes special formal and substantive reference to the works in the collection of the Lehmbruck Museum, will be donated to the collection after the exhibition. Musicians can choose to play trumpets, tubas, flutes, pan pipes, drums, cabasa, bells or agogo.
In a humorous and subtle manner, Aladag searches for the utopian potential in everyday life, in order to then transfer it – in the spirit of Duchamps – to its artistic reality. As a catalyser, she uses cultural practices such as music or various different visual patterns, which she works into her fabric pieces, in order to bring together, across mental and geographical borders, that which apparently does not fit together. Aladag’s artistic practice is shaped by a broad aesthetic media spectrum. As a sculptor she not only models with classical materials but also links her works to metaphors and stories. This special material-aesthetic view characterises both her performances and her objects and room installations.
In the process, her works transcend formal and functional categorisation and move without any theoretical ballast through historical, cultural and political discourses. Aladag’s artistic approach addresses one of the key points of the potential of contemporary, socially relevant sculpture, which is examined at the Lehmbruck Museum in the programmatic series “Sculpture 21st”.
The original instruments have their roots in different cultures and geographical contexts. Aladag playfully enhances our perception of the circumstances of coming together over and beyond all cultural boundaries: “What influences whom and how, and when does it all become cacophony?”
Aladag first took the public limelight back in 2017 when she participated in the 57th Venice Biennale and she is also a familiar figure from Documenta 14 which took place in Athens and Kassel. She is currently one of the most sought-after German artists and this year is presenting her work at Kunsthalle Basel and in San Francisco.
This presentation of Nevin Aladag as part of “Sculpture 21st” is kindly supported by Sparda-Bank West’s Stiftung Kunst, Kultur und Soziales and Ouset Germany_Switzerland.