BRUTAL TIMES – Cevdet Erek, Catherine Nichols in conversation with Nita Deda

Join us for a conversation with Cevdet Erek, Catherine Nichols and Nita Deda that departs from the artistic intervention Brutal Times, situated in the recently protected heritage site Rilindja.

As an iconic architectural landmark, Rilidnja’s presence has many layers that one has to grapple with. Beginning from the history its walls convey, to the hopes and desires, that the public space now presents.

Engaging with a now-abandoned section of the building, the artist draws out the temporalities embedded within the post-privatisation void: using graphics, lights and sounds, associated with the production process of the newspapers and techno music.

The rhythms of Brutal Times are based on Rilindja’s timeline, running from the end of the second world war to the 1990s: one second of the artwork stands for one day in history. With this immersive environment, Erek creates a space of embodied memory and experience, raising the question of what comes next.

More about Cevdet Erek

Cevdet Erek (1974, TR) is an artist and musician. A major part of Erek’s artistic practice is site-specific installations. Contemplating and exploring rhythms, his work produces intense bodily experiences and establish provocative correlations between different temporalities and histories, forms and languages.

His unique spatial and sonic language is partly rooted in his university education and experience in architecture, sound engineering and design and in his continuing music practice. Erek’s work often involves architectural interventions that include the unconventional use of sound systems and graphics. They are occasionally stimulated by improvised performance.

More about Catherine Nichols

Catherine Nichols, an arts and literary scholar, curator and writer, will take the artistic lead for the next edition opening on the 22nd of July 2022. Having mounted acclaimed exhibitions across Germany, she is currently the artistic director of beuys 2021, a year-long centenary programme in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia dedicated to the artist Joseph Beuys.

More about Nita Deda