Mit Shirts, Stilettos und Teer
Mit Shirts, Stilettos und Teer
The central topics, music and dance, in the work of Nevin Aladag function as expressions of cultural identity and sub cultural interactions, and articulations in urban spaces.
In her new multipart work these two themes of her artistic interest are joined in a new way.
The video work Raise the Roof (2007) shows scenes of a choreographed dance performance on a tarred roof in Berlin near the Spree River.
Four female dancers move, each one for herself, to songs that cannot be heard by the viewer. With their Stiletto heels they appear to tear up the tar covered rooftop; the electronically amplified sound of these charged dance steps create a new wild hearing experience, which in turn unites the isolated movement of the dancers. Each of the four protagonists wears a T-shirt with title and duration of the song that can only be heard through the dancers headphones; each dancer moves to this rhythm across an imaginary dance floor. Besides each private ecstasy, and strong impressions of freedom, a triumph over restriction is conveyed through the dances.
Amongst other things these intended links draw their motivation from the historical relevance of this particular place, a former border section between West and East Berlin; this roof served as a patrol route for GDR border soldiers and was heavily guarded.
Nevin Aladags video work and its preliminary performance, Raise the Roo,f deal with the connotation of control, and the liberation from it, the affiliation to a group and the isolation within such, through expression of a - specifically female - resistance. Aladag’s staging of this work has expanded on her familiar use of urban spaces; taking us from the streets to the rooftops of Berlin.
Anke Hoffmann
Kulturwissenschaftlerin
Nevin Aladag lives and works in Berlin.
Gitte Weise Gallery
Tucholskystrasse 47
10117 Berlin Germany
During ART FORUM BERLIN (29.09.-03.10.) we will be open
Saturday and Sunday 10 am – 10 pm
Monday – Wednesday 10 am – 8 pm