Raise the Roof. Nevin Aladağ internationally renowned installation and performance artist
Dear friends of the Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt,
From June 29, 2025 to February 1, 2026, the Mathildenhöhe Institute Darmstadt is showing the solo exhibition Raise the Roof by the internationally renowned installation and performance artist Nevin Aladağ (*1972 Van, Turkey, lives and works in Berlin). Aladağ playfully combines artistic forms of expression such as sculpture, painting, textiles, video and sound to create multimedia works. The exhibition focuses on works created between 2012 and 2025 – including some new works that are being presented in a museum exhibition for the first time. The show is complemented by site-specific works that Nevin Aladağ created especially for the Mathildenhöhe.
In her artistic practice, Nevin Aladağ adopts strategies of collage and recycling. Fragments of earlier works are reassembled in unexpected constellations. By experimenting with form, material and sound characteristics, the artist redefines the boundaries of genres, bodies and space. Musical instruments and everyday objects that were originally developed for other contexts are cleverly restaged. In surprising, sometimes humorous combinations of art, music and performance, Aladağ explores the interaction of practices and traditions from different cultures. By understanding music as the most mobile form of art, the artist’s works open up new perspectives on the current world and social contexts.
The title of the exhibition Raise the Roof also refers to a work by Nevin Aladağ created in Berlin in 2007. Dancers move to songs that are inaudible to the audience. Through their powerful movements, the stiletto heels of their dancing shoes create a perceptible, rhythmic sound. In 2017, the performance, which will be shown as a video work in the exhibition building, was restaged for the Venice Biennale. However, the meaning of the title goes far beyond the work: Raise the Roof not only literally stands for the lifting of a roof, but metaphorically for the earthquake of a building. It is an active, almost performative call that is reflected in the artist’s exhibited works – sometimes in sound or movement, sometimes in the rhythmic structures of her compositions. By playing with the dimensions of the exhibition building, Aladağ not only explores the potential of her own works, but also that of the location in a new way.
Raise the Roof marks the first major presentation by one of the most influential contemporary artists since the reopening of the exhibition building. Nevin Aladağ has developed a site-specific installation that deals with the history of Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt in a special way. Once the center of the Darmstadt artists’ colony, the Mathildenhöhe has always been a place where art, design and architecture, but also music, dance and theater have entered into mutual connections. In her artistic practice, Aladağ transfers the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk into a contemporary discourse.
The exhibition tour resembles a choreography that unfolds through sound and rhythm as well as movement and interaction. Dr. Sandra Bornemann-Quecke, Deputy Director of the Mathildenhöhe Institute and curator of the exhibition, explains: “The works of Nevin Aladağ enter into an exciting dialogue with the architecture of Joseph Maria Olbrich. In an interplay of visual art, music and performance, the artist invites the public to experience her works and the exhibition halls through the senses. Raise the Roof is not only a very individual art experience – the exhibition opens up resonance spaces to reflect on central themes of our time such as identity and community and to adopt new perspectives.”
Call for submissions of furniture for an art project Darmstadt furniture wanted for a contemporary art project!
Is there any old furniture hiding in your home that you no longer have any use for? The artist Nevin Aladağ is developing a new work of art for which she is looking for pieces of furniture from around 1900.
From June 29, 2025 to February 1, 2026, the Institut Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt is showing the solo exhibition Raise the Roof by internationally renowned installation and performance artist Nevin Aladağ. Aladağ playfully combines artistic forms of expression such as sculpture, painting, textiles, video and sound to create multimedia works. For the exhibition at Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt, a site-specific installation is being created that explores the boundaries of genres, bodies and space. The interplay of visual art, music and performance creates resonant spaces that open up a variety of associations with themes such as identity, community and globalization.
Furniture that was created in Darmstadt and the surrounding area, but also generally between 1890 and 1920, will be sought and possibly acquired: Seating furniture such as chairs, armchairs and two-seaters, storage furniture such as smaller cupboards and chests of drawers, tables such as dining tables, side tables etc. Furnishings such as newspaper stands, lamps, wardrobes, mirrors and picture frames are also of interest to the artist. She prefers objects made of wood and metal, which are more delicate than solid. Nevin Aladağ changes their appearance and function in such a way that a new art form is created.
