There Is A Place, which took place at Hara between 7 October 2023 and 2 March 2024, brought together site-specific works by Sena Başöz, İnci Furni, Ekin Kano, İrem Nalça, and Cansu Yıldıran, each responding to the theme of safe space. The exhibition’s concept and design were shaped by Onur Hamilton Karaoğlu and Canan Bozbağ. The following is an excerpt from the Foreword by Onur Hamilton Karaoğlu, featured in the exhibition publication:

“During our very first meeting in September 2022, Canan Bozbağ told me how she wished for Hara to be a place that nurtured creative imagination. Spaces extend invitations for us to dream. The boundaries of spaces are set by the likes of walls, or fencing wires on the edges of lands. But are there limits that circumscribe imagination? In early 2023, while Canan and I were searching for a way to define what Hara is, rather than laying the foundations of a structure shaped by fixed rules, we soon understood that our task was to conceive a space where imagination would exist and roam free. Only an open and collective structure, where every exhibition, event and project would contribute to the fashioning of Hara as a genuinely creative space, was likely to enable such a vision to materialise.

Spurred by such thoughts, the conception of There Is A Place —the first group exhibition held at Hara— began upon the gathering of five artists on 18 May 2023. Our intention to realize this exhibition together encompassed a broader meaning than merely providing an environment for all artists to present their works. This we all felt during this first meeting. Hara was extending an invitation for Sena Başöz, İnci Furni, Ekin Kano, İrem Nalça and Cansu Yıldıran to freely and openly carry out research and to produce. Built upon sincerity and goodwill, this very atmosphere, which enabled the artists to forge their own processes with the means provided by Hara and engage in a common dialogue, soon made each and every one of us an integral part of this project, which we all embraced and believed in.”