Hana Elhaddad Pens Open Letter to Ryan Gander Over Salzburger Kunstverein Exhibition
On Sunday, 23 August, Hana Elhaddad, a researcher based in Cairo, expressed her concerns regarding Ryan Gander's exhibition, One Hundred Things Twice, through an open letter to the Salzburger Kunstverein. Upon her arrival at 20:29 on Friday, 14 August, she initially perceived the installation as a construction site, only grasping its true nature by Sunday, 16 August. The exhibit features Thing #45: Once seen entering never seen again (2026), which includes a hoarding with a swing door and 51 fictional exhibition posters. Elhaddad critiques the viewer's engagement, likening it to the Geneva Freeport, and remarks on the instability of the displayed objects, noting that visitors departed without the catalogue. She also mentions Gander's August CAPTCHA and the mouse Olive in Things #63–64: The story is in the telling (2025). This text is part of the Salzburger Kunstverein x ArtReview Writers Residency.
Key facts
- Hana Elhaddad wrote an open letter to Ryan Gander about his exhibition One Hundred Things Twice at Salzburger Kunstverein
- Elhaddad is a researcher based in Cairo
- She first visited at 20:29 on Friday 14 August and mistook the show for a construction site
- Thing #45: Once seen entering never seen again (2026) is a building-site hoarding with a partially open swing door
- The hoardings carry 51 posters for fictional exhibitions at existing institutions with existing artists and artworks
- Auction paddles were offered as Things #35–36: I'M SO TIRED THE SHEEP ARE COUNTING ME (2026); Elhaddad took paddle #237
- She pressed buttons on Thing #29: Homeless, religious and high (2026) and nothing happened
- Gander's August CAPTCHA reads 'Select All Squares with Meaning'
- Kateryna Lysovenko's intervention in the Ringgalerie addresses who gets approved as human
- The letter was written in the exhibition space on Sunday 23 August
- The piece is part of the Salzburger Kunstverein x ArtReview Writers Residency
Entities
Artists
- Hana Elhaddad
- Ryan Gander
- Kateryna Lysovenko
- Olive
- Alba Malika Belhadj Merzoug
Institutions
- Salzburger Kunstverein
- ArtReview
- Geneva Freeport
- kunst:art
Locations
- Salzburg
- Austria
- Cairo
- Egypt
- Geneva
- Switzerland