For the Danish artist Jens Haaning the conditions and the contexts within which he sets up his own works are never accessory elements external to the project, but often they are the very central part from which the entire process starts. Already present to the Documenta 11 and to several biennials and exhibitions in the most important museums of the world, Jens Haaning often catches the observer unprepared working on the hidden and underneath aspects of the art system and of the social system in general. Marginality finds a central role in his work; the minor characters and meanings mix hybridizing in an innovative way the principal culture. With this wit projects like Flag production have been realized; this latter changed the Contemporary Art Museum of Bordeaux in a factory for the production of flags of non-existent states, showing afterwards the flags on the balconies of the houses of the city. Cultural marginality and spatial distance often meet in the artist's works like in the Afghanistan 5012 Km project a road sign installed, in the period of the Afghan war, at the entrance of the city of Utrecht, which indicates the distance to arrive to that country. Or projects like Copenhagen - Texas (light bulb exchange) in which the artist substituted the neon light bulbs of the exhibition space with the ones of a Vietnam food shop in the black suburbs of Houston. www.jenshaaning.com |