Buralarda bir yerde / Somewhere around here

‘Somewhere around here’ sounds like something you might not immediately recognise. It starts out simple: three bowls, filled with different amounts of water. With a few sticks, different tones soon emerge. Before you know it, you are making music, just by tapping on three bowls of water.

Is this a guide to becoming an instrument builder? Or maybe just an invitation to move on a sound carpet and travel in your imagination to another world of noises and tones? Perhaps it is both. Because although it seems simple, a person can dive deeper into the world of sound, experiment and discover.

Take, for example, a broken umbrella on the street. It looks like an insect, a bit strange and awkward, but what if you were to place its skeleton on a stick? The little hinge pieces fall to the ground and the sound they make, a short clang on the concrete floor, is like music to your ears. Add wires and make the whole thing spin with a small motor. The articulated arms chime across the floor in an irregular rhythm. It is sound from the unexpected, from the non-working that functions.

Years ago, Serkan Aka often visited a friend in Istanbul, a traditional musical instrument maker. He was fascinated by his workshop and the materials. He made a flute there, using found materials. That's where it started: making what are called ‘sound sculptures’ by himself. And increasingly, chance and sound began to play a bigger role. Another artist and musician, John Cage, called the combination of chance and sound ‘visual music’.

On the streets of Anderlecht, Serkan Aka collects whatever he can find: old objects, discarded items, often broken or shattered. And here again that element of luck or chance comes into play. What is broken can be the start of something new, something that can produce sound. With a bit of tinkering, motors and sensors, he creates sculptures that respond to the movements of the people around them. It is a world of sound, change, tempo, and unexpected rhythms: men-o-phony. Variety. Fast. Slow. Coincidence. Sound. Play and movement. Somewhere around here.

What does a rescue blanket sound like? The gold and silver reflect light, but to Serkan Aka, the blanket sounds different: it crackles, like a slowly melting ice floe or a campfire gasping for air. Who or what is under the blanket?

Serkan Aka performs not only with his sculptures, but also with friends, bringing homemade instruments and sounds to life. Together, they perform on the streets or in plays, where they respond to each other's sounds and rhythms. It's spontaneous, it's music, it's life. It happens here, somewhere in the neighbourhood, in a place where sound and movement fill the space.