Henrik Olesen

Some Illustrations to the Life of Alan Turing (Apple), 2008

Some Illustrations to the Life of Alan Turing (1912-1952), 200
Some Illustrations to the Life of Alan Turing (The Body is a Machine Alan Turing age 5, 1917), 2008

Some Illustrations to the Life of Alan Turing (I am, Sir, Your Obedient Servant), 2008
Some Illustrations to the Life of Alan Turing (1936), 2008

Some Illustrations to the Life of Alan Turing (The Body Underneath the Skin, Alan Turing circa 1926), 2008
Some Illustrations to the Life of Alan Turing (Alan Turing with Replica, age 16), 2008

Some Illustrations to the Life of Alan Turing (A virtual system, capable of simulating the behaviour of any other machine, even, and including itself), 2008


Some Illustrations to the Life of Alan Turing (Electric), 2008
Some Illustrations to the Life of Alan Turing (Bodies without Organs), 2008

How do I make myself a body, 2008

The Body is a Machine, 2010


Papa-Mama-ich, 2009, computer printouts on newsprint

Papa-Mama-ich, 2009, computer printouts on newsprint




Papa-Mama-ich, 2009, computer printouts on newsprint


Papa-Mama-ich, 2009, computer printouts on newsprint

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Basel is actually presenting a retrosprective exhibition of the oeuvre created by Danish artist HENRIK OLESEN which features a selection from his works of the past fifteen years.

The exhibition, which runs over two floors, gives the public the opportunity to see the artist’s development and approach. Since 1998 HENRIK OLESEN explores the body and gender as well as their representation, by means of collages, posters, sculptures, texts and three-dimensional architectural interventions. He focuses on and explores homosexuality based on the political consequences of daily life, the media and society’s power structures. OLESEN introduces the homosexual body in order to draw our attention to the general repression and suppression of homosexuality throughout history.

Most recently, he created a historical and imagined portrait—in photo-text collages and sculptural objects—of British mathematician and inventor of the binary code ALAN TURING, who was persecuted for his sexual orientation by the British authorities to undergo female hormone treatments designed to reduced libido.

What interests me about the TURING biography is not only the way it illustrates the boundaries and histories of the 20th century, but that it also seems almost like a gendered prophecy. In a horrifying way, TURING ’s body was injured by the violence of modern ideology, he lost his own body, in a way, but he also made a new one. In 1936, he published a theoretical model of a machine that was to constitute the basis of all post-war computing, making him the father of all modern computer science. And this part of his biography is a futuristic tale about thinking machines, artificial intelligence and the appearance of possible future bodies. And to me, this is a long-needed escape from biological, heterosexual reproduction. – HENRIK OLESEN for Mousse Magazine

HENRIK OLESEN studied at The Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark; and Staatliche Hochschule fuer Bildende Kuenste, Städelschule, Frankfurt, Germany. His first retrospective of his work was organized by and presented at Malmö Konsthall in Malmö, Sweden (December 4, 2010– January 30, 2011) and is actually on view in Basel at the Museum of Contemporary Art until 11 September, 2011.



4 commentaires pour “Henrik Olesen”

  1. […] Henrik Olesen, Some Illustrations to the Life of Alan Turing (A virtual system, capable of simulating the behaviour of any other machine, even, and including itself), 2008. via Fliegender & We Find Wilderness […]

  2. […] di Turing. L’artista danese Henrik Olesen ha dedicato una interessante riflessione a Turing https://www.we-find-wildness.com/2011/06/henrik-olesen/ all’interno di una ricerca sull’identità biologica, sessuale, […]

  3. […] Alan Turing Art project by Henrik Olesen […]

  4. […] Henrik Olesen, Some illustrations to the life of Alan Turing (Apple), 2008 et The body is a machine (2010). Source […]