Cevdet Erek to represent Turkey in Venice
ISTANBUL
Organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), the Turkish pavilion is located at Sale d’Armi, Arsenale, in the main venue of the biennale.
The project frameworks of the pavilion were announced at a press conference on Feb. 27 at Salon İKSV.
IKSV General Director Görgün Taner said İKSV had been coordinating the Turkish pavilion at the Venice Biennale since 2007.
“Our achievement of the allocation of a permanent venue at the Venice Biennale with the contributions of 21 supporters in 2014 has been of tremendous importance. We believe that our regular participation in the biennale provides a crucial platform for Turkey’s production and success in the field of culture and arts to have a repercussion abroad,” Taner said.
Erek illustrated some methods and concepts that he has experimented with in his series of works since the end of the 2000s, such as “Room of Rhythms,” “Rulers and Rhythms Studies” and “Sound Ornamentations,” among others, with sounds, images and drawings.
“ÇIN,” created as a site-specific work for the pavilion at the biennale, will be developed during the process and be shaped together with the venue.
“Instead of trying to describe a project that is meant to be experienced on-site, and is still in the phase of formation, I propose to imagine a scene together as an exercise: There is a fenced ruin in the distance with a guard inside of it who should not leave during the day. The guard, while walking in silence, notices a visitor who carefully peeks around and the concert of thousands of crickets thanks to the visitor. This duo, who try to talk to each other at a distance, briefly cry out at the same time from the ear pain caused by a violent noise that occurs out of the blue. Then, at night, in another place as the officer tries to suppress the ringing in her ears by opening the window two fingerbreadths … [there is] an alarm sound,” he said.