b. 1972 in Turkey

Nevin Aladag is a German-Turkish artist. Her photography and video works are lighthearted and poetic reflections of the lives of immigrants in Germany. Aladag, who studied in Munich in the late 1990s with the artist Olaf Metzel, came to Germany with her parents at the age of one; her family hoped for work and to benefit from a more open society. Aladag’s interest is not in the ‘the clash of cultures’, but rather the ruptures that lie between cultures and the new relationships that grow out of differences. The artist uses a variety of media such as video, performance, poster and t-shirts, she then transforms ready-made materials creating distinct stories from hybrid identities. Aladag is interested in youthful role models such as rappers, breakdancers, musicians and singers, and in the potential for divergence that emerges from the experience of migration. Mediation, and inter-cultural communication and consensus are repeating themes in her works.

In her series of photographs called Breakdancers, she was inspired by the similarities between the ‘freeze’ positions improvised by these dancers on the streets and performers in European squares who dress in  historical costumes and colour their bodies to mimic the state of a ‘statue’. In this work, she proposes the need to ‘show’ oneself with references to different cultural contexts in the urban space. In recent years Aladag has participated in exhibitions at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, 2003 in Berlin, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, 2006 in Kassel and Museo Tamayo 2006 in Mexico City.