What is authority?

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 has 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

Language: English