Commissioned by
Verwey Museum Haarlem
Curator
Kim Knoppers
Artist
Olgaç Bozalp
Date
22 September 2023- 24 January 2024
Essay
Cahier A3_Eng_Olgac Bozalp_KimKnoppers
Review
Volkskrant Olgaç Bozalp
The series Arada—Turkish for “in-between”—is a spontaneous, intimate portrayal of a recent journey undertaken by Olgaç Bozalp (1987, Konya, Turkey; based in London) and his mother through Japan. The photographs quietly echo the space she inhabits—or, perhaps more poignantly, the absence of space truly her own.
After his acclaimed photo series Dad: On His Search for Hüseyin, which followed a journey with his father along over 2,000 kilometers of Mediterranean coastline, Olgaç was often met with a question: Where is your mother? Why has she never appeared in your work? While his father saw photography as a hobby, it was his mother who urged him to follow his dreams—possibly because her own were left unexplored. She becomes a reflection of her generation, women whose lives unfolded in a time when independence was a rare privilege.
Olgaç Bozalp’s solo exhibition Arada resonates with the thematic exhibition Female Turkish Pioneers, where first- and second-generation Turkish women in Haarlem share their personal journeys and untold stories.
