HAH (2017-2020)
HAH was an artist collective founded in Istanbul in 2017 by Sevgi Aka, Ahu Akgün, Gizem Karakas, Ayça Telgeren, Defne Tesal, and Murat Yıldız, and active until 2020.
It operated as a space of gathering, prioritizing being side by side, remaining open to chance, and responding to the conditions of the present. Hospitality, play, and attentiveness formed the basis of its practice.
Working across performance, installation, publishing, and participatory formats, HAH developed situations where collective processes could emerge: reading together, writing anonymously, building temporary communication networks, or engaging in simple actions that invited others to take part. Its projects foregrounded shared authorship, horizontal modes of organization, and informal circulation of knowledge.
HAH’s works create frameworks for encounters—sometimes direct, sometimes anonymous—where dialogue, memory, and experience continue to be produced, transformed, and passed along.
Without a predefined trajectory, the collective remained deliberately “on the way,” attentive to what could emerge through proximity and shared time.
2020
HAHreads, reading performance, Radyomodyan
2019
An Attempt to Connect, performance, 16th Istanbul Biennial public program, hosted by birbuçuk Collective, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Istanbul Museum of Painting and Sculpture, Istanbul
2018
Open Talks with Artist Collectives, artist talk and group exhibition, Kasa Gallery, Istanbul
HAHcalendar, collaborative publication with Sena Başöz, Lara Ögel, Romina Meriç, Sevgi Aka, Uzay Kere, Beste Topuz, Onur Ceritoğlu; published by Art Unlimited
There Is Another Possibility: About Open Space and Artist Collectives, group exhibition, Kasa Gallery, Istanbul
2017
Base Talks / Artist Initiatives, artist talk, Galata Greek School, Istanbul
Talking About Things That We Don’t Really Know as Far as We Know, workshop, St. Joseph High School, Istanbul
HAHasks, reading performance, MÇPS recording studio (initiated by Can Altay & Saz Arkadaşları), produced by Amira Arzik, 5533, Istanbul
Maybe, We Will Benefit from Our Neighbor’s Good Fortune, group exhibition, curated by Işıl Eğrikavuk, Halka Art Project, Istanbul
Being Part of a Collective, artist talk, Depo, Istanbul
We Remember, After Joe Brainard and Georges Perec, performance by Gizem Karakas with HAH, HAHmekan, Istanbul
Vesile, exhibition catalogue, published by HAH
Vesile, group exhibition with Etem Şahin, Selim Birsel, Lara Ögel, HAHmekan, Istanbul
Opening of HAHmekan, working and exhibition space, Levent, Istanbul