download catalogue high resolution pdf (22.3 mb) - Jens Haaning

HHP
P.142
HHP: then why have you chosen art to convey this kind of message and express
your cultural and social concerns? How do you think about art's particular
position in the society?
JHC: My choice to work in the art field is not a choice in which I have been looking
for the right place to express my cultural and social concerns. In my life, I have
been occupied with 3 different main interests: 1. existential questions 2. cultural,
political and social issues and 3. the pleasure by creating and making things. Before
I started making art, I was shifting fields quite often. I was a brick layer apprentice,
involved in political activities, working in a kindergarten and reading psychology,
philosophy and history. My awareness of art started in a period when I was very
occupied with personal existential questions. My father died in 1987 and short after,
I started making art and studying at the art academy in Copenhagen. The art field
was the first area where I was able to combine and work with my three interests at
the same time. My artistic practices are mainly perceived and seen as dealing with
cultural, social and political implications, because these topics are presently very
debated in the media, society and art field, but I also think it can be seen as an
existential practice with a big interest in psychology.
There are quite a few things about the art's position in the society that I have the
need to take distance from. I have a problem with the fact that the art field in
Western Europe - where I live and do most of my projects - is dominated by a white
upper class culture for rich people which among other things confirm the belief that
the white western culture is in charge of the world. One of the qualities of the art
world that makes me stay in, is the fact that I am welcome to "speak" even though I
do not come with solutions but mainly am posing questions to the topics I am
interested in. The art field is one of the cultural structures where questioning and
criticisms are welcome. Even questions and critic towards the field itself.
HHP: Your projects have essentially been dealing with the question of immigration
in the Western society. While their presence provoke some controversial reactions
in the society, how do you expect the society can adapt to a new reality which
is increasingly multicultural?
JHC: Some days I believe that the Western society will be able to adapt to the
increasing multicultural situation and some days I don't. The increasing multicultural
situation is often limited to a question of different cultures, religions and skin