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Cevdet Erek
28.02.2026 — 26.07.2026Cevdet Erek
Ꜵccident GROTESQUE
Cevdet Erek
28.02.2026 — 26.07.2026Cevdet Erek
Cevdet Erek
Ꜵccident Grotesque
West Den Haag presents ‘Ꜵccident Grotesque’, a large-scale solo exhibition by Istanbulbased artist Cevdet Erek. For this exhibition, Erek transforms the former American embassy into an installation in which rhythm and architecture attune through sound, timing systems and graphic displays.
Erek’s practice is rooted in the inseparable relationship between space and sound. Visitors are actively engaged in both the form and the sonic character of the environment. For Erek, rhythm is not merely a musical concept but a way of perceiving the world – a means of connecting space, time, and movement. For West, he has developed a spatial system that spreads across rooms and office spaces. A continuous beat moves through the modernist building and physically guides the visitor, allowing the architecture to be experienced not only structurally, but also sonically and visually.
The embassy building was completed in 1959, designed by Marcel Breuer. Erek draws on this period by taking inspiration and sound samples from an early drum-machine, the Wurlitzer Sideman, developed in the same years. ‘Ꜵccident Grotesque’, written with a specially designed Ꜵ-ligature – refers to the history of the architectural design by Breuer, during the height of modernism and economic optimism. The ligature gains additional resonance, allowing to shift between vowel sounds and between accident and occident, two words that trace back to the Latin root cadere (“to fall”), with occident referring to the setting of the sun. Erek uses the ligature to reference the West and the paradoxes of progress and power.
With Breuer’s architecture as its foundation, West becomes a large-scale sound installation in which sound, rhythm, and space merge. The twin sequencers developed with The Hague based instrument maker and creative coder Rob Bothof generate a timing structure that spreads across former embassy offices. Twelve rooms per floor correspond to twelve different time signatures that includes signatures devoting from traditional Western meters such as 3/4 and 4/4, that function as time signatures. When the windows open, the work becomes part of the façade and of the public space. Visitors move through a continuous sonic field in which orientation and perception subtly shift.
In the building’s basement, Erek presents 'Fluctuations of Raw Techno Material’ (2024). Sound sources circulate through the space, forming a rotating field of rhythmic units that approach and recede from a relatively fixed listener and draw on sonic materials associated with industrial techno. Whereas movement is central in the front wing, here the visitor is standing still, immersed in an intense and focused auditory environment.
‘Day’ (2014) consists of a linear LED display that tracks the minutes of daylight for each day of an exhibition, with one LED corresponding to one minute. It pulses from right to left, reversing the conventional left-to-right direction associated with reading and with many visual displays of time. Together, the works introduce multiple timing systems within the former embassy building in which each floor plays its own rhythmic role.
Biography
Cevdet Erek (1974, Istanbul, Turkey) studied architecture at Mimar Sinan University for Fine Arts and Sound Engineering & Design at Istanbul Technical University’s Center for Advanced Studies in Music (MIAM). Erek is co-founder of the experimental band Nekropsi. He has participated in major international exhibitions, including dOCUMENTA (13) (Kassel, 2012), the 14th Istanbul Biennial (2011, 2015), and the 57th Venice Biennale (2017) representing Turkey. His work has also been presented at numerous institutions such as Secession (Vienna, 2025), Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin, 2024), The Art Institute of Chicago (2019), M HKA, (Antwerp, 2018), MUAC (Mexico City, 2017). Erek is part of the faculty at ITU TMDK and ITU MIAM in Istanbul.
Ꜵccident Grotesque
Open
28.02.2026 — 26.07.2026
Opening
28.02.2026, 19:00 — 24:00
Location
West Den Haag in the former American Embassy, Lange Voorhout 102, The Hague
West Den Haag presents ‘Ꜵccident Grotesque’, a large-scale solo exhibition by Istanbulbased artist Cevdet Erek. For this exhibition, Erek transforms the former American embassy into an installation in which rhythm and architecture attune through sound, timing systems and graphic displays.
Erek’s practice is rooted in the inseparable relationship between space and sound. Visitors are actively engaged in both the form and the sonic character of the environment. For Erek, rhythm is not merely a musical concept but a way of perceiving the world – a means of connecting space, time, and movement. For West, he has developed a spatial system that spreads across rooms and office spaces. A continuous beat moves through the modernist building and physically guides the visitor, allowing the architecture to be experienced not only structurally, but also sonically and visually.
The embassy building was completed in 1959, designed by Marcel Breuer. Erek draws on this period by taking inspiration and sound samples from an early drum-machine, the Wurlitzer Sideman, developed in the same years. ‘Ꜵccident Grotesque’, written with a specially designed Ꜵ-ligature – refers to the history of the architectural design by Breuer, during the height of modernism and economic optimism. The ligature gains additional resonance, allowing to shift between vowel sounds and between accident and occident, two words that trace back to the Latin root cadere (“to fall”), with occident referring to the setting of the sun. Erek uses the ligature to reference the West and the paradoxes of progress and power.
With Breuer’s architecture as its foundation, West becomes a large-scale sound installation in which sound, rhythm, and space merge. The twin sequencers developed with The Hague based instrument maker and creative coder Rob Bothof generate a timing structure that spreads across former embassy offices. Twelve rooms per floor correspond to twelve different time signatures that includes signatures devoting from traditional Western meters such as 3/4 and 4/4, that function as time signatures. When the windows open, the work becomes part of the façade and of the public space. Visitors move through a continuous sonic field in which orientation and perception subtly shift.
In the building’s basement, Erek presents 'Fluctuations of Raw Techno Material’ (2024). Sound sources circulate through the space, forming a rotating field of rhythmic units that approach and recede from a relatively fixed listener and draw on sonic materials associated with industrial techno. Whereas movement is central in the front wing, here the visitor is standing still, immersed in an intense and focused auditory environment.
‘Day’ (2014) consists of a linear LED display that tracks the minutes of daylight for each day of an exhibition, with one LED corresponding to one minute. It pulses from right to left, reversing the conventional left-to-right direction associated with reading and with many visual displays of time. Together, the works introduce multiple timing systems within the former embassy building in which each floor plays its own rhythmic role.
Biography
Cevdet Erek (1974, Istanbul, Turkey) studied architecture at Mimar Sinan University for Fine Arts and Sound Engineering & Design at Istanbul Technical University’s Center for Advanced Studies in Music (MIAM). Erek is co-founder of the experimental band Nekropsi. He has participated in major international exhibitions, including dOCUMENTA (13) (Kassel, 2012), the 14th Istanbul Biennial (2011, 2015), and the 57th Venice Biennale (2017) representing Turkey. His work has also been presented at numerous institutions such as Secession (Vienna, 2025), Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin, 2024), The Art Institute of Chicago (2019), M HKA, (Antwerp, 2018), MUAC (Mexico City, 2017). Erek is part of the faculty at ITU TMDK and ITU MIAM in Istanbul.