Henrik Olesen

14.5. - 6.6. 1999

 

Up through the present century, the knowledge and realizations of western culture have been structured along the principles of a series of symmetrical binary conventions. Oppositions such as masculine-feminine, active-passive, natural-artificial, heterosexual-homosexual all contribute to an objective and neutral way by which the world is perceived and understood. A consequence of this is that binary constructions such as these are instrumental in freezing the legal position of homosexuals so that this continues to be a legislatively marginalized one.

Homosexuality is viewed as a suspect psychological confusion concerning the relation between male and female - as a conflict of sex and gender, so that for instance gay men are 'in reality' women in men's bodies and lesbians would really rather prefer to be men. Rather than homosexuality being conceived as equal to heterosexuality in a legal sense, gay sexual identity has remained legally isolated in the sexual act and in the postulated psychological positioning of the two accepted genders. This placement continues to exercise its influence and results in the criminalization of homosexuality in the western world. Thus it is a fact that there are regulations which hold for homosexuals that do not apply to the rest of the population and vice versa.

The exhibition at OTTO centers on problems that arise from the binary and symmetrical worldview. Set firmly within a larger context in this way, the treatment of art in the exhibition stands in stark opposition to both the tapestried, decorated exhibiting-rooms of the 1880'es and to modernism with its attempt to focus in isolation on the art object, to strive for making the architectural setting which frames the object as anonymous as possible, a neutral, asexual physical setting.

The resultant white and symmetrical space is the antithesis of the setting for contextual art, with the latter's insistence that social, architectural and political situations are everpresent. It is important to have a sense of the cultural, conceptual and historical awareness and to understand that this awareness does not vanish as we undergo an experience of art.

Thus the exhibition at OTTO emphasizes that context cannot be neutral and further that the surrounding architectural and social space influences the perception and experience of the art-object. Taking as his point of departure, the geometry of the exhibiting rooms as well as a traditional, historical division of the interior as being feminine and the exterior as masculine, Henrik Olesen has made a series of asymmetrical markings. These mix and comment on the problems that concern sexuality and the categorization of family and gender.

Thus the exhibition is an attempt to upset and stir the binary concepts of gender. Henrik Olesen studied at The Royal Academy of Art, Copenhagen, and in 1997 completed his education at Staatliche Hochschule fŸr Bildende KŸnste, Frankfurt am Main. The last few years he has primarily exhibited in Germany, at places such as KLOSTERFELDE, Berlin, and in KŸnstlerhaus Stuttgart. Moreover, he has participated in projects in conjunction with Portikus, Frankfurt am Main. He will be exhibiting at Gallerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, and at Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark.

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