[6][7][8] In response to a series of open air exhibitions in Istanbul, such as in the gardens of the Museum of Archeology (1976 and 1977) and Dolmabahce Palace (1977),[citation needed] her work developed towards site-specificity and gradually embraced the installation form.
[7] In parallel, her interest in the language of musical composition took center stage starting from Cadence (1995) and Prelude (2001) in Istanbul's Maçka Sanat Galerisi,[9] and became a prominent feature of some of her works in the 2000s such as Opus II - Fantasia (2001, Kunsthalle Baden-Baden).
[7] Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions at Maçka Sanat Galerisi (1987, 1991, 1995, 2000, 2012), Istanbul Modern (2011), Augarten Contemporary, Vienna (2010), Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2005), ZKM, Karlsruhe (2004), Lunds Konsthal (2003), and the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (2001).
In a 1987 artist talk at Maçka Sanat Galerisi, she said, “The artwork ends with the explanation of the artist.”[14] According to Beral Madra, rather than imposing a meaning, this was intended as an invitation for the viewer to engage freely with the works to arrive at their own interpretations and narratives.
Uğur says that the work's exhibition history is crucial, as the work was rejected from the State Art and Sculpture Exhibition in 1976, with an Academy painting department tutor calling it “a child’s toy.”[19] In a conversation with curators Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and Hans Ulrich Obrist, published in conjunction with documenta (13), Onur states, “I forget, İlhan [her sister] remembers and asks.”[14] Onur's sister Ilhan plays a major role in the preservation of her artworks, "If Ilhan was not involved, there would not even be the photographs.