Bergama Stereo
Cevdet Erek 

In his lecture, the artist presents his reappraisal of the form, the historically attributed function and the ongoing reception of the Pergamon Altar that he performed through his work Bergama Stereo (2019) and its variation Bergama Stereotip (2020). The work, an architectural installation with sound and a performance program, refers to the altar and its famous Gigantomachy frieze which was originally located in what is now İzmir, Turkey, the historical Bergama. The original elements were transported to Berlin at the end of the 19th century and a reconstruction designed specific to the new Pergamon museum was produced. Bergama Stereo was exhibited in two different locations in Germany; first at Bochum as part of Ruhrtriennale and at Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum of Contemporary Art (Berlin, 2019). Afterwards it was reinvented in a new form and reconstructed as Bergama Stereotip in Arter (Istanbul, 2020), thus addressing further ideas such as originality, remake and return.

Cevdet Erek, born 1974, lives and works in Istanbul. He studied architecture at Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts in Istanbul and Sound Engineering & Design at the Center for Advanced Studies in Music (MIAM) of Istanbul Technical University, ITU. From 2005 – 2006 he was an artist-in-residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. In 2011, Erek received his doctorate in Music from the ITU MIAM. In 2012, he received the Nam June Paik — International Media Award of the Arts Award of Kunststiftung North Rhine-Westphalia. He currently teaches at ITU TMDK and ITU MIAM.

Cevdet Erek has presented his installations internationally in numerous solo and group shows: in 2017 he represented Turkey at the 57th Venice Biennale with his work ÇIN. In 2012, at dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel, he showed the installation Room of Rhythms, a work that he later realized in site-specific versions in altered form at MAXXI, Rome (2014), the Istanbul Biennial (2015), and the Sydney Biennale (2016). Erek was represented with solo exhibitions at venues including Chicago Art Institute (chiçiçiçichiciçi, 2019); M HKA, Antwerp (AAAAA, 2018); MUAC, Mexico City (A Long Distance Relation, 2017); Spike Island, Bristol (Alt Üst, 2014); and Kunsthalle Basel (week, 2012).