Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum at Frac Aquitaine, Bordeaux

Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum, working as a collective since 2001, present an exhibition at Frac Aquitaine in Bordeaux from October 4 to December 21, 2013. The show, curated by Alexandra Baurès, features documentary videos alongside installations of objects and sculptures. Using molds made by the artists, immigrant women subcontracted by a rubber factory in Lea Artibai—Jaio's home region in the southern Basque Country—hand-finish pieces referencing Jorge Oteiza's 'Experimental Chalk Laboratory'. The platform displaying these objects is supported by legs turned on van Gorkum's grandfather's lathe, crafted by a former worker from a propeller factory in the Netherlands. The exhibition explores labor through two contrasting lenses: one depicting loss of meaning, routine, and exploitation; the other emphasizing material transformation, skill, and competence. By intertwining their family histories with divergent social conditions in northern and southern Europe, Jaio and van Gorkum introduce action, invention, and subjectivity into industrial and manual work. They advocate mobilizing 'the intelligence of hands and bodies' and reclaiming work to 'liberate desires' and 'unfetter imaginations', drawing on André Gorz's book Misères du présent, richesse du possible (Galilée, 1997).