Reflections on Begüm Erciyas' Hands Made at the KFdA 2024.
I'm sitting in a cabin, a curtain shields me from the person sitting next to me. There is a spot-lit table crossing into both of our booths.
I am writing on my phone:
"Do you not want to participate?"
But, I guess your actions speak for themselves.
In the event of the non-participation of my anonymous partner, I felt a lot of responsibility to perform. There was no 'meet half way'. I found myself in the role of performer instead of participator. There was a voyeurism that I did not expect. The actions proposed by the score were not comfortable to perform because I was performing for another who did not want to share, or hold a desire to explore the possibilities of hand movements. There was somehow a giving and spectatorship of my hand that was highlighted by the actions proposed in the score but was not reciprocated in the gesture of the other.
What could have been an anonymous game guided by an artistic score on hands and labour suddenly became a study on power dynamics and consent.
My willingness to participate and their non-participation was weighted and blocked my full immersion into the score. The power dynamic was something that could have been negotiated and consented to before the performance... But how? The participation of our hands was made clear in the text about the work. Did it need to be reiterated? How does the artist navigate and intervene in the (non)participation of the others? Especially when the entire work is pre-recorded and installed. How does one navigate boundaries and consent of the anonymous other in participatory art?


















