JENS HAANING ::::
born 1965, Copenhagen, Denmark
Lives and works in Copenhagen

Jens Haaning’s art examines and challenges cultural difficulties found within issues surrounding multiculturalism, interhuman relations and cultural critique against the background of global economy. Haaning raises questions concerning the social role of art and art institutions, emphasizing topics such as social borders within societies and issues of coexistence and the exclusion of marginalized groups. Through open-ended representations of foreign cultures fused with symbols of the majority culture, Haaning makes the artwork’s effect on the viewer its primary focus. Jens Haaning’s work examines how power is expressed and communicated within society. Baghdad Time consists of a clock hung on the wall set to Baghdad (Iraq) time. Through this piece Haaning seeks to question “the social, political, and cultural aspects of our coexistence.” Showing this time shift makes us reflect on the physical and temporal distance between San Francisco and Baghdad. It also enables us to think about another place, to relocate ourselves in another time, another context, another language. In the series of portraits, Jens Haaning photographs first-generation immigrants in Copenhagen in classic documentary style. The subjects pose in their own clothing and are asked which brands they prefer and how much they have spent on a particular piece of clothing. By representing these marginalized social groups through portraiture they join the collective of individuals in this globalized world.

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