Henrik Olesen, Crocodile (post-war Art Brut landscape) [Crocodile (paysage art brut d’après-guerre)], 2024
Crocodile: papier mâché, wood, reinforced meshing, acrylic paint, 23 x 190 x 70 cm;
Pedestal: card, MDF board, acrylic paint, 36 x 250 x 150 cm.

Bel SA Collection.

Along with his fellow reptiles displayed for the first time as part of the monographic exhibition entitled Food Chain, held at Den Frie in Copenhagen in spring 2025, Henrik Olesen’s Crocodile (post-war Art Brut landscape) embodies a highly contemporary form of resilience. A direct descendant of prehistoric dinosaurs, but also of Egyptian crocodiles, whose powerful presence left an impression on the artist with the mummies that still exist today and are now preciously conserved at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Mummification Museum in Luxor, the crocodile testifies to the ability of certain living beings to survive through the centuries, as well as the ease of certain civilizations to stop time, mark History, and bear witness to what they were.

Laurent Fiévet