Cevdet Erek’s practice emerges at the intersection of sound, rhythm, and spatial experience, where minimal gestures carry a resonant complexity. He orchestrates installations that subtly reconfigure our awareness of spaces and architectural environments. Through the interplay of seemingly modest visual and sonic elements—such as rulers, skeletal drums, or diagrammatic scores—or near-architectural scale constructions integrated with sound systems, Erek crafts immersive scenarios where the body becomes an instrument of perception. His works evoke a quiet attentiveness, drawing our attention to the rhythms of daily life, bodily movements, institutional routines and the latent histories embedded within architectural structures. Originally presented at the 36th Bienal de São Paulo, Erek has adapted Rampa rítmica (2025) and its spatial choreography for the architecture of Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Where the original installation engaged Oscar Niemeyer’s external ramp of the Bienal Pavilion, this iteration responds to the rhythm of HKW’s entrance colonnade. Twelve loudspeakers and two subwoofers are arranged among its columns, producing twelve simultaneous rhythmic structures that divide a shared duration by each whole number from one to twelve, resulting in a range of time signatures. Carefully selected samples introduce accents that at times evoke dance rhythms from otherwise distant musical geographies and traditions, including aksak metres. In São Paulo, these patterns were also represented through linear and cyclic notation on a large banner attached to the façade of the ramp structure. At HKW, a record-cover-sized photograph of the original installation carries this visual element into the exhibition. The work invites associations on movements through space – of ascent and descent – that link sonic and architectural worlds, as well as the rise and fall within movements and histories.

WORK IN THE EXHIBITION:


2 Rampa rítmica—HKW (2026), 14-channel sound installation, loudspeakers, digital print, 12＂, 31.5 × 31.5 cm. Courtesy of the artist and neugerriemschneider. Commissioned by Fundacao Bienal de Sao Paulo for the 36th Bienal, supported by SAHA, adaptation in Berlin commissioned by Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW)