The Forest Growing Within Us meets viewers between February and 15 March at Casa Foscolo Hotel in Pera. The exhibition, the second project by İlayda Babacan Art Projects, brings together the concepts of nature, the sacred, and the body, unfolding around the metaphor of a “forest” that takes root within the human being.
The group exhibition titled The Forest Growing Within Us, presented by İlayda Babacan Art Projects (IBAP), will be on view from 13 February to 15 March 2026 at Casa Foscolo Hotel in Pera. Bringing together works by Atilla Galip Pınar, Caner Şengünalp, and Damla Özdemir, the exhibition further clarifies IBAP’s curatorial direction as its second project.
Curated by İlayda Babacan, the exhibition brings the notions of nature, the sacred, and the body together on a shared ground. The neo-classical architecture of Casa Foscolo Hotel provides a powerful backdrop for this encounter; the venue, preserving its historical texture, becomes a context that renders the exhibition’s metaphorical layers visible.
Between Body, Nature, and the Sacred
Atilla Galip Pınar’s paintings address the relationship between human and nature not through an external landscape, but as an inner field of existence. Compositions constructed through color and form draw nature closer to human states of mind, memory, and fragility. The emphasis on “within us” in the exhibition’s title finds a concrete counterpart on Pınar’s canvases.
Caner Şengünalp’s sculptures, on the other hand, center on the transformation of the sacred. Through animal figures and fluid forms, he constructs a narrative in which the sacred is fragmented and dispersed into bodies and the earth. The dissolution, transparency, and melting of icons question the reduction of a sacred in crisis of representation to an aesthetic shell. These works form the dark, multilayered roots of the exhibition’s “forest” metaphor.
Damla Özdemir’s three-dimensional collages invite viewers to consider the cycles of nature alongside the concepts of obedience and disobedience. Bringing together the fresh leaves of spring and the faded tones of autumn on the same surface, the artist makes visible the invisible bonds between body and nature through metal wire and collage techniques. Growth and dissolution, beginning and end, coexist within the same structure.
The Forest Growing Within Us approaches nature not merely as an image belonging to the external world, but as a metaphor that takes root within the human being. Is the forest a refuge, or a site of confrontation? The exhibition leaves this question open, placing the viewer face to face with their own inner layers.
