My Exhibitions
Children of the Same Forest
Date: 17-28 February 2026
Venue: Lisan-i Ezhar
Children of the Same Forest constructs a narrative that whispers of seemingly singular beings nourished by a shared root. Human, animal, and mythological figures do not belong to separate stories here; they come together within the same memory, under the shadow of the same forest. Each figure that appears different on the surface is bound to another through an unseen connection.
This exhibition traces the "first told story." This story belongs neither to a single time nor to a single culture. It is part of a collective memory passed from tongue to tongue, from body to body, stretching from Sumerian myths to Anatolia's oral traditions. The story is not rebuilt here; its fragments are placed side by side. Meaning is not completed - it is left open.
Moving between painting, sculpture, and digital works, the artistic practice creates a narrative field woven with symbols. The Sumerian creation myth Enuma Elish and the symbolic language of Anatolia's lost civilizations quietly inhabit the depths of this field. These references are not made explicit; they are embedded within the works. The viewer completes the unfinished sentences of this story with their own memory.
The exhibition features child figures wearing animal heads alongside animals, fish, whale figures, mythological portraits, and characters from the epic of Dede Korkut. None is privileged over another. Human, animal, and myth exist on the same plane. All are fragments of the same forest, like different faces of a single story.
The exhibition's realization in a flower shop, Lisan-i Ezhar, is not incidental. The space holds cut flowers and living plants side by side. Transience and continuity, disappearance and persistence, become visible at the same time. This coexistence resonates with the exhibition's central concern.
Here, the space is not merely a setting; it is a living entity that breathes alongside the works. Flowers, plants, and artworks share the same visual field. The viewer encounters art within the flow of everyday life. This encounter serves as a reminder that the story is still being told.
Children of the Same Forest speaks of roots that extend into a shared narrative. The story does not end. It only changes form. This exhibition is an invitation to listen to the quiet echo of that story in the present.