Nevin Aladağ

In her intervention in the architecture of the exhibition venue, Palais am Festungsgraben, the artist extends a disproportionately elongated carpet from the window of the first floor onto the street. The rigid and vertical character of the neo-classic façade is broken up by the oriental pattern and diagonal posture of the carpet. The dissonance between these two referents alludes to the ongoing discussions on cultural diversification within Western societies and the possibility of living together with differences.

The performance of the dancer, apparently conversing with his own shadow under the spotlight and testing the limits of his mind and body, alludes to the resistant and transgressive potentials of subcultures, minority positions and recent uprisings around the globe. It can be conceived as a fi ght against the constraints of the representational categories in which the individual is caught, but it can also be seen as the expression of an incessant desire for overcoming imposed boundaries and improving existing social conditions.