While most of his fellow students moved to Copenhagen or other big cities after finishing the academy, Jesper Olsen moved the other way. He settled in Aalborg. "Here are good prerequisites for screwing up your working life as a young artist," he says. Right now, his work can be seen in the secretariat of the Association of Visual Artists.
After Jesper Olsen completed his education at the Jutland Art Academy in Aarhus four years ago, he chose to settle in Aalborg. Although virtually all of his fellow students quickly moved towards the art scene in Copenhagen or other big cities to get started with working life and test their artistic ambitions.
"I made the decision to stay in Aalborg for the simple reason that it was the most illogical," says 35-year-old Jesper Olsen, who has no regrets that he did the exact opposite of his teammates.
"In recent years, Aalborg has become a more attractive city for visual artists. And even though the art scene is not big here, many exciting people have moved to the city in the last few years," he says.
"By staying in Aalborg, I have been able to support myself by working exclusively in artistic contexts. Partly in my own artistic practice, partly as a teacher for children and young people, and now also as exhibition coordinator at Kunsthal NORD. I myself have been able to structure my working life so that I can both work with my own art, and have been able to prioritize spending a lot of time at home with my wife and my three children. I feel privileged to have such a good working life as a newly qualified artist.”
Jesper Olsen: Exhibition BKF's meeting room 2018
Guide for the growth layer
In 2015, Jesper Olsen became associated with the North Jutland Culture Agreement project Children's Meeting with Art (BMMK), where professional artists can be hired to create teaching courses at schools and institutions, who are reimbursed 60 percent of the artist's salary by the region.
"It is an initiative that really makes a difference. It is a flexible arrangement, where the response time is not long, so there is also the possibility of more spontaneous projects. It is up to the individual artist to organize their courses with the institution. It can, for example, be in connection with specific courses such as a theme week, but you can also offer your own courses through BMMK's website, which interested parties can then bid on. You can also create art in connection with various events. In that context, I have done courses on, among other things Cultural meeting Mors, ART CAMP 16 and the project Up On The Big Blade," he tells.
"In addition, I have done various teaching courses - and since May 2017 have been a permanent teacher at BGK Nord. Which I see as a super important task, as it is the last link in the food chain for the visual artistic talent pool in North Jutland, before they apply for the academy or other relevant educations.”
For the last six months, Jesper Olsen has also been associated Kunsthal NORD as exhibition coordinator.
"It is a privilege to be part of the only institution in the city that works with the new experimental art. Both because it gives me the opportunity to work in a professional setting, and because there I meet the exhibiting artists who are only in the city for shorter periods. The collegial conversations and sparring are rewarding and important. A good counterbalance to the work in the studio, which mostly takes place in one's own company."
Jesper Olsen: Exhibition BKF's meeting room 2018
Everyday life in a new light
In his artistic practice, Jesper Olsen examines social structures, e.g. consumerism, and family structures. And explores everyday repetitions, trivialities and rituals. The themes are challenged through a critical approach to his own life as well as to the Western society of which he is a part.
The works in BKF's secretariat, which can be seen in the month of June, are exhibited under the overall title Considerations over time, space, color and composition. They consist of both new and older photographs, taken partly in the area of Aalborg where he grew up, partly in the quarter of the city where he lives now.
"Fundamentally, it is an attempt to isolate individual elements from daily life and give them a different focus, where the individual gable or building is staged anew," says Jesper Olsen about his exhibition at BKF.
"By replacing the surrounding landscape that surrounds the gable with a single color, the elements are recomposed in new contexts, which at once tries to create a kind of macro perspective on the elements that the gable consists of, and at the same time tries to create a new context and narrative. This is supplemented by various curtains found in the areas where the pictures were taken. They become concretely meaningful, both by virtue of their presence in the compositions and as stand-alone elements that clearly have time inherent in them.”
Jesper Olsen. Photo: Lars V. Andersen.
Jesper Olsen: Considerations over time, space, color and composition. Photos, prints, textiles.
The exhibition will be shown in June 2018 at the Visual Artists Association (BKF), Vingårdstræde 21, 1.th., and can be experienced during the secretariat's opening hours Monday-Thursday from 10-15.
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Jesper Olsen: Reflections on time, space, color and composition. Photos, prints, textiles. Association of Visual Artists, June 2018
