Cevdet Erek

Cevdet Erek’s Timeline (2007) and 0-now (2007) form a conceptual introduction to the exhibition. While these two works imply a fixed linear measurement denoting a complete period or retrospective, they do not set a single tempo. Instead, they correspond to a myriad of personal interpretations. It is significant that these works stem from a residency period spent in Cairo, where the rule of the ‘golden section’ was first mastered. This system of divine proportion is studied and applied in architecture, mathematics and music; disciplines whose fundamental elements hold a special place in Erek’s work. Timeline is the first prototype of the ‘Ruler’ series, which is being built by Erek to function as a collection of tools for interpreting linear time. This ruler shows a span of years from 1974 (a year that is coincidentally the artist’s birth-year, but can also be imagined as any other starting point) to 2007, in Arabic, with a scale of 1cm = 1 year. 0-now is the second prototype and shows a period of time from 0 to ‘now’, which can be used to interpret the span of a life, the span of time since it began, or any other collection of temporal events. The passing of 0 to ‘now’ takes 20 centimetres, without the connotation of a fixed scale nor unit.
 
Cedvet Erek was born 1974 in Istanbul where he currently lives and works. He graduated with a degree in architecture from Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts in Istanbul before completing an MA in Sound and beginning a PhD at ITU – Centre for Advanced Studies in Music (MIAM), also in Istanbul. Erek was on residency at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam from 2005 to 2006, where his installation ‘Studio’ was awarded the Uriot Prize 2005. Erek’s installations, videos and performances have been shown at 9th Istanbul Biennial, Platform Garanti, Stedelijk Museum, Extra City, Artists Space and others. His recent solo ‘A Few Retrospectives’ exhibition took place at Galerie Akinci-Amsterdam, and his artist book ‘SSS’ was published by BAS as a part of BENT series in 2008.