Native, Exotic, Normal / Circle of Flags by Hesselholdt & Mejlvang

Experience the art installation ”Native, Exotic, Normal / Circle of Flags” (2016) by the Danish artist duo Hesselholdt & Mejlvang.

The installation is placed in front of Horsens Art Museum, in the park.

The artwork has been exhibited widely across Denmark. The first time was in 2016 as the solo-exhibition “Native, Exotic, Normal” at Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen. The same year, it was exhibited as a satellite project at Roskilde Festival Art Zone. It has also been exhibited in the city of Randers in 2019, as part of the exhibition “FLAG – Objekt, ikon, symbol” at Randers Art Museum.

”Native, Exotic, Normal / Circle of Flags”, focuses on the problems concerning that Denmark once had a colony in the Caribbean, called Danish West Indies. With the artwork, Hesselholdt & Mejlvang also debates the contemporary focus on multiculturalism. To this day, we can still see the huge impact the Danes abuse of power in the Caribbean, has had on our society and culture. We still see examples were ethnicities and the color of our skin separates us, instead of bringing us together.

The artwork consists of twelve flagpoles with flags, lined up in a circle. Characteristically for the flagpoles and flags, are that they consist of six different skin colors, which goes from light to dark. There are two flagpoles with flags in the same color nuance for each of the six skin colors, which together marks twelve flagpoles.