AYŞE ERKMEN
15. October - 31. October 2004

The Schirn presents “durchnässt” (“soaked”), a new work by Ayşe Erkmen, which the artist has developed specifically for the Schirn Rotunda. The project fits into the series of works by Carsten Nicolai, Elmgreen & Dragset, Jeppe Hein, Olafur Eliasson, James Lee Byars, and Costa Vece realized at this location to date. For her work, Ayşe Erkmen relies exclusively on the conditions of the location. From the circular area in front of the entrance zone of the Schirn, which is surrounded by big concrete columns, paths lead in all directions. Ayşe Erkmen’s intervention transforms this panoptic waiting area into a stage that forces us to look at the ground and suggests a choreography based on an apparently aleatory score for each step. The paving stones arranged in concentric circles are replaced with dirty puddles and irregularly distributed loamy islands. The work draws on photographs of an unpaved street with shack-like houses in the background which Erkmen made in Pristina in the Kosovo. The dislocation of rooms or objects and their implementation into new contexts –in the present case: into the center of a Western financial metropolis – are an essential characteristic of the oeuvre of this artist who was born in Istanbul and lives in Turkey and Germany. Project Management: Matthias Ulrich