Cevdet Erek
Bergama Stereo – Berlin Fragment
Artist
Cevdet Erek
Title
Bergama Stereo – Berlin Fragment
Year of creation
2019-2024
Technology and dimensions
Architectural construction with 4-channel sound and information board, speakers, amplifier, computer, wood, metal
Year of acquisition
2024
Acquisition of the foundation
Acquired by the Foundation of Friends of the National Gallery for Contemporary Art.
In the winter of 2019-2020, the architecture installation designed for the museum was exhibited in the historic hall of the Hamburg train station with sound "Bergama Stereo". In this work, the artist and musician Cevdet Erek, who lives in Istanbul, referred to the form, the historical function and the constant history of the Pergamon altar in Berlin. The proportions of the Hellenistic building, the fragments of which had been transported from the original location in today's western Turkey to Berlin at the end of the 19th century, were preserved on the reduced scale of almost 1: 2. The famous giant frieze of the altar was interpreted by EREK in a multi-channel composition and the sculpture frieze replaced with a monumental loudspeaker frieze. Following the presentation of the work in Berlin, the artist showed fragments of the architectural construction in Istanbul and Singapore, whereby color and sound moved to the respective exhibition locations and premises. For the collection of the National Gallery, the artist has now designed a red-colored fragment of the altar with a 4-channel composition, which, like in an archaeological excavation, is accompanied by an information board on which the eventful history of the pergamon altar and its interpretation through a work of contemporary Art is described.
Gabriele Knapstein

Image sources
- W-HB_2406_010: Cevdet Erek, Bergama Stereo Berlin Fragment, 2019-2024 / Architectural construction with 4-channel sound and information board, loudspeakers, amplifiers, computers, wood, metal / Berlin State Museums, National Gallery, acquired in 2024 by the Stiftung der Friends of the National Gallery of Contemporary Art © Cevdet Erek. State Museums in Berlin, National Gallery / Thomas Bruns / Installation view of Hamburger Bahnhof – National Gallery of the Present, Berlin