Intervention #11: Eylem Aladogan

The desert landscapes of Utah, Arizona and Nevada arouse emotions of power and fear in Eylem Aladogan. These feelings fascinate her, and she expresses them in architectural and organic elements. The exhibit presents recent graphic works and an installation that Aladogan made especially for the museum. Eylem Aladogan is the winner of the 2009 Volkskrant Fine Art Prize. 

Double stratification: Eylem Aladogan (Rotterdam, 1975) uses traditional materials and modern-day techniques in two and three-dimensional works. In her own words the artist describes her choice of materials as a ‘state of mind’, where the properties and constraints of the medium help to determine the content of the work. Her 2009 work ‘Backbone ‘Spearhead’, for instance, combines a drawing of a Native American with a photograph of Bryce Canyon. Aladogan has put razor-sharp shapes all over it with red tape. Her work contains stratification not only in material but also in meaning. She intertwines memories, feelings and events that lead to a images with several layers of meaning. 

Eylem Aladogan lives and works in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Galerie Fons Welters will be exhibiting her work in the autumn of 2009. She graduated from the Willem de Kooning Academie in Rotterdam in 1999. 

Intervention #11- Eylem Aladogan has been put together by Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen’s City Collection curators, Saskia van Kampen and Louise Schouwenberg, whose projects focus on art and design from Rotterdam. 

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen gives contemporary art a prominent position through presentations that reflect on and respond to the collection or the museum building. The contrast with existing art from the collection reinforces these visual statements and creates an exciting tension. The interventions sharpen the public’s perspective and stimulate the imagination.