Henrik Olesen / What is authority?

192 pages / 1500 ex / 2002 / Euro 38.-

Published by Pork Salad Press / ISBN 87-987855-2-4

- My projects take their point of departure in social and political structures and question how and for whom things are written.

The writing of history, politics and culture have in the past concentrated on the male heterosexual subject. That is who we learn about in schools, history books and what we experience in the art museums and on TV. That is who has been chosen to represent our shared history. But what about all the others – where are they in the cultural landscape?

My projects have ranged over an area between art and politics, and have examined the representation of minorities within the democratic societal structure: how does legislation characterize certain social groupings and what are the consequences of these heterosexual, normalizing power structures? I have focused on identity as a mechanism of exclusion in modern histories of culture and art and for example I have analysed the representation of minorities in the archiving of art in the museums of art, and investigated the presentation of minorities in the media. These art projects have been an attempt to question the art-historical structures within the institution of culture. Henrik Olesen, January 2002

Content and texts by:

Frederikke Hansen: A Twist in His Sobriety (Introducing the work of Henrik Olesen)
Sabeth Buchmann: How to do Art with Information?
Bill Arning: Chris Burden’s Seedy Allure, (or how I learned to love conceptual art)

Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset in conversation with Henrik Olesen: Somehow I feel that strengthening homosexual culture is more urgent than using my energy to persuade some homophobic psychopaths to be nicer, more understanding guys.

Lars Erik Frank: Marginal note - The exclusion of gays and lesbians in gay-marital Denmark
Zygmunt Bauman: After the Nation-state - What?
Florian Waldvogel: Zollverein Coking Plant