Bergama Stereotip by Cevdet Erek at Arter

Cevdet Erek's solo exhibition "Bergama Stereotip" opened on Feb. 26 at Istanbul's Arter Gallery, consisting of a sounding architecture conceived for the gallery space.

Curated by Selen Ansen, the exhibition takes the architecture and odyssey of the historical Great Altar of Pergamon as point of reference and reinterprets it.

A continuation and a variation of the work "Bergama Stereo," which was first presented in Germany at Turbinenhalle as part of the Ruhrtriennale in Bochum and then in the historical hall of Hamburger Bahnhof Museum in Berlin in 2019, the installation takes the historical Great Altar of Pergamon as point of reference and reinterprets it.

The Great Altar of Pergamon, a Hellenistic edifice also known as the Zeus Altar, was an open-air monument presumably built in the 2nd century B.C. following the victory of the Pergamon Empire over the Galatians as a place where sacrificial ceremonies were considered to be held. Unearthed during the 19th-century archaeological excavations at the ancient city of Pergamon in the town center of present-day Bergama in İzmir, the altar was encircled by the Grand Frieze that depicts the battle between the underground Giants and the celestial Olympian gods.

At the turn of the 20th century, the remains of the Grand Frieze were transported from their original site located in the Ottoman Empire to Berlin, capital city of the newly born German Empire.

In Berlin, the monument was reimagined and reassembled in order to be exhibited at the Pergamonmuseum, a museum specially constructed for the altar. The historical displacement of the remains has given birth to an ongoing debate.

Featuring a portion of Bergama Stereo's structure, "Bergama Stereotip" stands as a vestige in the first...