Firat Erdim

Des Moines, United States
Whether with cast shadows, clouds of ink, or the tow line of a kite, Fırat Erdim’s practice explores the interrelationship of lines, materiality, and place to question axioms of architectural imagination. Projects such as the Kite Choir and the Field Harp facilitate aesthetic practices of attunement with the atmosphere. The custom instruments developed in these works are played in collaboration with the wind, making the ebbs and flows of the atmosphere palpable as a dynamic, sonic thickness. Their polyphonic, social dimension asks whether we can act together in relation to our existential medium. This work has been performed or exhibited at Versus Art Project (İstanbul), the Des Moines Art Center, WORKS+WORDS Biennale (Copenhagen), Adds Donna (Chicago), the 2022 Toneburst Electroextravaganza (Wesleyan University), and the Italian Virtual Pavilion of the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale, among others. Erdim received the 2015 Rome Prize in Architecture from the American Academy in Rome and a 2016 Santo Foundation Award for Individual Artists. Originally from Turkey, he is currently associate professor at Iowa State University.