The Stockholm-based collaborative Ronny Hansson, Jonas Kjellgren and Stig Sjölund have
worked together since 2004. With a humorous, anti-authoritarian ethos, their works debunk
morality and comfort, such as their amusement park rides that confront the beholder with
laconic dysfunction: the one-person Ferris wheel that takes the beholder for an excruciatingly
slow 360° ride, or the conveyor belt that takes you into the air only to drop you on a mattress.
Anyone for interactive art? Their work for the Attitude show, Alien vs. Ride.1 (2006) consists of a
2,5m tall kinetic sculpture of a bird with a top hat and orange boots. The bird tilts purposelessly
back and forth and creates a danger zone as its pointed beak descends from above. The bird
responds to a video in which the artists re-enact the first scene of the space horror movie Alien.
In this, a “dippy” or “happy bird” – the little movable object that was a domestic design fad in the
1970s and very common in homes as well as on office desks – appears inexplicably. In Alien
vs. Ride.1 a fascination with popular culture is laced with the desire to challenge the art space’s
rationality as well as the physical integrity of the beholder.
 
Lars Bang Larsen