Presenting the Record of Relational Aesthetics: Bjørn-Kowalski Hansen/Håkki™ at Gallery Yujiro

Bjørn-Kowalski Hansen at Gallery Yujiro

Bjørn-Kowalski Hansen at Gallery Yujiro (that’s him in the middle).

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I popped over to Gallery Yujiro last week for the opening of their new show – the work of Bjørn-Kowalski Hansen and the Håkki™ project.

Håkki is essentially a brand and was created as an umbrella term to identify the products and activities relating to the artist’s work in the town of Ljungaverk in the heart of Sweden. Ljungaverk has been at the sharp end of the effects of globalisation – the major employer in the town closed fifteen years ago leading to the decimation of the community, as large numbers moved to more promising areas for work.

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Conclusion

So what does gesture tell us about Tino Sehgal’s work and what value does it have?

Sehgal’s pieces seem a good fit for Agamben’s gestic politics – they deliberately eschew a product or remnant of any kind, and implicate the audience in a perpetual game of the confusion of roles with the other participants of the piece. The pieces themselves do not live outside of memory and make the audience physically aware of their role within the institutional context of the gallery or museum and within the piece itself.

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