First exhibited at Holstebro Museum of Art in 2014.
Installation: polyester organza, excerpts from The Four Gated city by Doris Lessing, 3 freezers with DNA material from 6 actors, 3 small videoprojectors, coppertube, 3 glasscontainers with soil, water and coal moving over three magnetic white triangles. Public big screen projection once every 24 hours.

Description
Generation investigates the maternally transferred mitochondrial DNA that links all of humanity together. In a post-futuristic performative installation where a combined color-filter spanning the whole space, complete scenography sewn in translucent red fabric and stage curtain , theater and film melts together with biology, science and a fictional underground activist group that writes, archives, sleeps, looks at the stars and clothes from centuries of culture and power, infused by the Doris Lessing Novel pre-apocalyptic “The Four gated city” and the ending of her Children of Violence series.

We are all related, but branched out in haplo-groups. We all carry epigenetic memory from countless wars, famines, trauma and events unimaginable. What shapes our cultures today? Are we our blood or are we our environment? We might just be both. The story of being before your time, having ideas before they can find a void to occupy or a medium to grow in and the silent maternal mitochondrial bond that bind us all through bodily memory.

In three miniature video projectors that looks handcrafted, post-apocalyptic, two actors acts out epigenetic collective memories of birth, dead, discovery, administration, trauma in a silent movie style. Three window freezers display blood, hair and other bio-samples from the actors in the space, as a frozen physical presence.

Credits
Video: 19:18 minutes
© Jette Hye Jin Mortensen, 2014
Credits
Producer: Claudia Saginario
Cinematography: Catherine Pattinama Coleman
Light: Annika Aschberg
Edit: Jette Hye Jin Mortensen
Actors:
Patrick Baurichter
Lourdes Faberes
Rikke Lassen
Massimo

Photo: Timme Hovind

Catalogue text by curator Anders Gaardboe Jensen
”It is, of course, difficult to predict how life sciences will develop in the future. In recent years, however, there have been major advances in the research field of molecular biology. These advances have led to greater certainty about the nature of heredity. It is a well-known fact that not only genes are passed down from parents to their children but also a number of environmental factors and behavior patterns are inherited. In addition, we have become aware of the so-called epigenetic inheritance, which, among other findings, shows that traumatic events in previous generations can have an influence on brain structure, behavior and sensitivity in the generations to come.

As a result, it causes major consequences for the perception of identity and the individual. What do for instance nationality, race and gender mean to the modern people in our globalized world where transnational adoption and new reproductive techniques challenge our traditional notions of belonging, kinship and ancestry? What implications does it have for our perception of humanity in general? How does an adoptee bring a country’s policies on normalization and the right to self-determination up for negotiation? Which resources are needed to create a different pic- ture of the human being - whether human, posthuman or inhuman? Are there other sorts of life ’out there’? These questions are crucial in Jette Hye Jin Mortensen’s (b. 1980) art practice, which is often based on auto- biographical material and performative installations.

Some of these problematic issues are very present to Jette Hye Jin Mortensen, who was born in Seoul and adopted to Denmark at the age of two. This has led to considerations whether what is strongest: the environment in which she grew up or the genetic ties from South Korea, the Korean language and culture.

Hye Jin Mortensen graduated from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and has a background in music and experimental theater. She creates visual productions involving fluid choreography and narratives characterized by poetic and meditative moods. She is also known for her deep personal and sometimes relentless desire to challenge and overthrow established “truths”. A desire which is everywhere esthetically translat- ed into strong symbolic, conceptual and research-based works including senses, body, language and cognition.

A characteristic feature in the works of Hye Jin Mortensen is a joining of what seems to be conflicting issues, ways of expression and thinking. There are both room for inspiration from avantgarde music as well as the esthetics of pop music videos; quantum physics and psychoanalysis; neurobiology, astrophysics and ceremonial acts; and, finally, of Zen Buddhism which - at least to some extent - represents an alternative to the conventional scientific approach, ritualistic practices and psychological introspection. In addition, the expression of the body of work is often the result of interactions between flawless, conscious esthetics and a col- lective way of working, where Hye Jin Mortensen can pass on autonomy in the artistic expression by involving external partners and other participants. Finally, Hye Jin Mortensen ́s intuitive way of working is influenced by the so-called ’para-theater’, which follows the tradition of the Polish theater director Jerzy Grotowski (1933-99), who endeavored to abolish the distinction between spectator and actor in his performances.

In other words; Hye Jin Mortensen is interested in transitions and passage. Although she often carries a transcendental approach, she never withdraws from the historical reality. Nevertheless, her personal experi- ence of being a minority is associated with a timeless perspective, which is specific in the ambiguousness of her artistic work, which on one hand is characterized by a recurrent (bio) technological longing for the future,and on the other hand is about the recovery of the feeling of cohesion between generations.

(in Danish)
Alle disse forhold gør sig i høj grad gældende i forbindelse med udstillingen GENERATIONpå Holstebro Kunstmuseum. Et stort scenetæppe lavet af sammensyede kostumer i rødt silkeorganza danner baggrund for et fiktivt, politisk teaterstykke som –måske, måske ikke –kan opføres engang ude i fremtiden. Skuespillerne –to afdøde, to nulevende og to endnu ikke fødte –er kun til stede via nedfrosne DNA-prøver og embryoner. Der refereres forskellige steder i udstillingsrummet til såkaldt haplogrupper, som betegner en form for stamtræer, der skulle demonstrere, at alle nulevende mennesker i teorien kan tilbageføres til én fælles stamfader/stammoder.

På en række videomonitorer gennemspilles forskellige reproduktive handlingsoptrin, hvori også indgår scenetæppets fysiske rekvisitter.Monitorerne henviser endvidere til de fire elementer –jord, ild, luft og vand –som samtidig spiller en afgørende rolle i den koreanske kulturssfære. Man må forstå, at det ikke mindst er i omgivelsernes påtrængende blikke, at den adopterede genkender og internaliserer sin egen ’fremmedhed’. Hos Hye Jin Mortensen synes denne synsfælde at udløse en identifikation med den utilpassede, med rebellen eller den oprørske unge, hvilket tydeliggøres gennem direkte henvisninger til Doris Lessings (1919-2013) forfatterskab, herunder især bogen The Four-Gated City fra 1969 (da. Byen med de fire porte). Gennem fremtidsfortællinger behandlede Lessing blandt andet temaer som racisme, kvindeliv og selvødelæggelsestrang, men aldrig uden helt at miste fornemmelsen for en højere virkelighed og indre, bevidsthedsmæssige revolutioner.

Hvor Hye Jin Mortensens tidligere ritualiserede selviscenesættelsesprocedurer har haft karakter af psykodramatiske maskespil (jævnfør eksempelvis The Silent Retreat fra 2001), danner Lessings romankunst denne gang en underlægningstekst, der tillader andre og nye udsigelsespositioner med et frisættende potentiale. Gennem fiktive fortællinger, som henter sine ressourcer i antiautoritære visioner og en særpræget retrofuturistisk æstetik, etablerer Hye Jin Mortensen et gestisk drama, som forbinder ospå tværs af racekategorier. På denne måde taler GENERATION til mennesket i dets fortidige, nutidige og fremtidige skikkelser”.