Born in Turkey and raised in Germany, Nevin Aladağ playfully explores the relationships between identities, traditions and geographies. In her Music Rooms series, various domestic objects such as chairs, tables, and even a coat rack, are transformed into playable musical instruments. She is inspired by the music rooms that originated in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, where private homes and palatial residences accommodated recreational musical events. In acquiring a range of sonorities beyond Western and Eastern traditions, disparate heritages are brought into new bodies. In this exhibition conceived for the festival Aladağ displays a series of sculptures made from furniture and objects that she found in Istanbul, alongside a selection of video works. Brought into the Maison des Arts, the chairs and coffee-tables are camouflaged as elements of a living room: their status is ambiguous, swaying between their past life as furniture and their possibility of being musical instruments. Four concerts are also organised in the exhibition in collaboration with ensemble Ictus and different musicians to open possible sonic dialogues of this modified living room.

(Kunstenfestivaldesarts)