Acoustic Horizon

Pera Museum presents Özcan Ertek’s interactive sound installation Acoustic Horizon, inspired by the Suna and Inan Kıraç Foundation Orientalist Painting Collection. The installation plays soundscapes driven from the paintings in the Intersecting Worlds: Ambassadors and Painters exhibition, using an electronic compass that operates according to the direction of the horn. The project launches with a live performance by Özcan Ertek, where he will be playing this instrument.

Influenced by the intensive relations between European states and the Ottoman Empire during the period from the 17th to the 19th centuries, Acoustic Horizon reflects upon history while also exploring its connections to the present. The paintings included in the collection are not only significant in revealing information on diplomatic relations within the Ottoman Empire but are also substantial portrayals of the attitude felt by European Ambassadors either visiting or residing in the region. Acoustic Horizon invites the audience to use this instrument to listen to the sounds inspired by the paintings in the collection exhibition. In connecting seemingly juxtaposed concepts such as the conscious and the unconscious, the physical and the emotional and distance and close proximity, the installation explores future scenarios. 

Acoustic Horizon can be experienced in the Orientalist Painting Collection gallery during museum visiting hours. 

About Özcan Ertek
Özcan Ertek, musician and artist from Istanbul, completed his master's degree in Sound Engineering and Sonic Arts at Istanbul Technical University Istanbul MIAM-Music Advanced Research Center in 2015. Afterwards he completed a diploma programme in the Art and Media department at the University of the Arts Berlin. Ertek, who previously received a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, produced works in various art spaces, galleries, event venues and sound studios in Istanbul. Since November 2018, Ertek has been exhibiting kinetic sound installations featuring new media and mechanics in Berlin, as well as performing as a musician. The development of computer technology in the last two decades has led to the creation of sophisticated interfaces that utilize different types of sensors as well as interactive art. Ertek's interdisciplinary works examine human-machine-nature relations and critically reflects on the social effects of new technologies.

About Orientalist Painting Collection
The Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation's Orientalist Painting Collection is one of the most elaborate collections in Turkey. This grand collection brings together important works by European artists inspired by the Ottoman world, Turkey’s regional geography, as well as works of Ottoman artists and how they influenced one another from the 17th century to the early 19th. The Collection presents a vast visual panorama of the last two centuries of the Ottoman Empire, also includes works by Osman Hamdi and his most famous painting “The Tortoise Trainer”.