Cevdet Erek: chiçiçiçichiciçi

Iterations, a new series of commissioned performances, launches with a new work by Cevdet Erek.

The new performance and installation by Cevdet Erek (born 1974, Istanbul), chiçiçiçichiciçi, takes its cue from daily life: how footsteps strike the pavement; how one’s fingers gently play a railing or a fence; or how beats, rhythms, and sonic patterns affect the movement of people on the street. Each sound is a percussive proposal and designates a different motion or relationship to the architectures and objects that are part of this everyday soundscape. 

Erek’s practice as a musician, architect, and visual artist revolves around sound as a measure for space, time, and the world around us. Erek’s new work, chiçiçiçichiciçi, uses the gallery wall in the museum’s Griffin Court as instrument, soundtrack, and graphic notation. Conflating representation and performance, Erek adds various forms of visual and written language to the wall—all variations of the work’s onomatopoeic title—while the same wall is host to architectural elements that can be played as instruments. Erek’s own prerecorded sound permeates Griffin Court through a 18-channel sound installation, in order to suggest a pace, to impact how our bodies navigate space, and to designate a shifting proximity to architecture and sound.

chiçiçiçichiciçi is the first installment of Iterations, a series of new performance commissions. 

The next installment of Iterations presents Cally Spooner’s DEAD TIME (a crime novel).

ABOUT ITERATIONS

Iterations is a series of new performance commissions that underline the wide range of artistic practices and attitudes in performance today. Over the course of three years (2019–2021), the series will present works by Alexandra Bachzetsis, Math Bass, Cevdet Erek, Ralph Lemon, Paulina Olowska, Cally Spooner, and Evelyn T. Wang.