Hanne Nielsen & Birgit Johnsen - Inklusion/Eksklusion

In autumn 2014, ARoS will show a major presentation of the Danish artist duo Hanne Nielsen & Birgit Johnsen's installation video works.

Nielsen & Johnsen have worked together since 1994. Much of their work is based on our relationship to the television medium and the different ways we relate to reality. They investigate behavioural patterns and our often subjective relationships to both general historical issues and to the different cultures we are part of. Through this, some of the identity issues we see ourselves in unfold.

The exhibition at ARoS will be a wide-ranging exploration of the concepts of inclusion and exclusion. For the first time, three of the artist couple's new video installations will be shown at the exhibition, each of which unfolds the relationship between the individual and the surrounding world in its own way. The human being is thus at the centre, and in relation to society and the world, is both included and excluded.

The exhibition also features older works that trace back to the artists' extensive body of work. These retrospective works address other aspects of the concepts of inclusion and exclusion. While the older works, such as Construction in Space and Tearing of Onions, draw on gender-conscious themes and play with different narrative techniques, the new works address the schism between individual and personal issues versus universal and more global issues. The characters in Nielsen and Johnsen's new works are either excluded by falling into powerlessness or they allow themselves to be included in the world's major political issues.