BongHo Ha 봉호하
14 february
Description
Even though we meet a lot of interesting people in our life running HAS, artists, thinkers, entrepreneurs, builders, it is very rare that we encounter something truly new. Not a variation. Not a refinement. But something that actually shifts the medium itself.
BongHo Ha is one of those rare encounters.
With Mangchi, BongHo Ha confronts photography’s most fundamental limitation: its flatness. Using the hammer, a tool he has lived with for decades, he turns both subject and method into a way of breaking through photography’s own system. By printing directly onto crumpled aluminum foil, he disrupts the smooth photographic surface and transforms the image into something sculptural, tactile, and physically present. These works do not just depict depth, they have depth. They change as you move. They demand to be encountered, not merely viewed.
What makes this extraordinary is not only the visual result, but the fact that we are witnessing the emergence of an entirely new photographic technique — a new technological and material approach to photography itself. This is not post-production. This is not illusion. It is photography evolving into an object.
Internationally, BongHo Ha is recognized as a key figure within post-photographic practice, where images are treated as material, spatial, and experiential rather than representational. As critic Ryu Byeong-hak has written, Ha “seeks to transcend photography through photography.” Few artists succeed in that ambition. Ha does.
This is something truly rare.
On February 14, BongHo Ha, one of Korea’s most important contemporary artists, arrives in Sweden for the first time.
This doesn’t happen often.
Stockholm is about to experience it.
Artist Statement
Photography has always been precise, and always flat. In this work, I question whether it can move beyond its surface.
I use the image of a hammer, a tool shaped by labor and repetition, and print it directly onto crumpled aluminum foil. The material resists control. It bends, reflects, and records every touch. The photograph becomes unstable, no longer just an image, but an object.
From a distance, the works appear solid. Up close, they shift. What seems three-dimensional is still a photograph; what looks like a photograph behaves like sculpture. This uncertainty interests me, the moment when perception hesitates.
I am not leaving photography.
I am testing its limits from within.
Date & Address
14 february 18:00-21:00.
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 10-16, Sat and Sun 10-16.
Helix Art Space (HAS), Torsplan 12, Stockholm.
Artists
BongHo Ha 봉호하
About
BongHo Ha (b. 1957, South Korea) is a photographer whose practice moves fluently between experimental art and high-level commercial image-making. Educated in Japan, with formal studies in photography at Osaka University of Arts and further research at Nihon University in Tokyo, Ha developed an early precision and technical depth that would become central to his work.
Since the late 1980s, he has worked at the intersection of craft, industry, and artistic inquiry. Alongside an internationally recognized exhibition practice — including solo shows and participation in major biennales and institutional exhibitions in Korea, Europe, and Asia, Ha has maintained a long-standing commercial studio, Hawamodu 하와모두, which he founded in 1994. Through Hawamodu 하와모두, he has led complex photographic productions for global brands such as Hyundai, Renault, Mercedes-Benz, and others, often overseeing lighting, composition, and large production teams.
This dual trajectory, rigorous commercial discipline and sustained artistic experimentation, has shaped Ha’s distinctive voice. His work is held in institutional collections, including the Gwangju Museum of Art, and has been shown at venues such as the Busan Biennale, the Prague Biennale, and the Asia Art Biennale in Taiwan.
Across decades, Ha’s practice has remained focused on pushing photography beyond its conventional limits, treating the image not only as representation but as a material, spatial, and conceptual object.
HAS mission statment
HAS begins this international collaboration in early 2026 with KyungTaek Lee, and now continues with BongHo Ha, bringing groundbreaking Korean contemporary art to Sweden. We believe it is more important than ever to lift our gaze beyond borders, fostering dialogue, exchange, and shared creativity. Through global collaboration, we aim to strengthen connections, curiosity, and a sense of a friendly, interconnected world. Our ambition is to carry this series through spring in Season 2 and into the fall of 2026, fostering ongoing exchange and dialogue. Looking ahead, we aim to take Swedish artists to Korea, creating a true two-way cultural bridge that strengthens a globally connected, collaborative, and open-minded world.
Make sure you’re on the list. Limited availability.