A feministic statement in the late 90'es. This is how the three women behind inserts - 67 female artists in Denmark, describe their art historical documentation. It features women's art on the electronic highway - the internet. Art critic Ulla Rønberg, Copenhagen, talks to inserts´ Sanne Kofod Olsen. by Ulla Rønberg

"Will there be women artists in the art history of the future?" Sanne Kofod Olsen, in: Waiter, There's a Woman in my Soup, (inserts) "You have to think of this project as a wedge that is pushed in between the piles of art historical writings," Sanne Kofod Olsen says. This should explain the title of the document: inserts - parts added to an already existing entity. Sanne is one of the three female promoters behind this project. It was published on the internet in December 1997.    "Inserts widens the focus of art historical writings, as it brings attention to female artists. We can not just accept things as they are in the Danish art world today, where there is a predominant focus on male artists," she says.    Sanne herself is an art historian, whereas the two other editors, Susan Hinnum and Malene Landgreen, are artists educated at the Royal Danish Art Academy. Their common trait is this quest for a debate on gender roles, and a desire to raise attention to the lack of women in the present art world.    "If you look at the curatorial practice of museums and galleries, you will find that female artists are not represented on equal terms with their male colleagues. That is a fact. Just look at a statistics of exhibited artists in Denmark throughout the year," Sanne says.    With this project the three women want to make room for female artists, their works and their writings about art. In other words they want to establish an alternative to the channels, through which attention is commonly drawn to performing artists, as these channels for a large part are controlled by the established institutions, where traditional - that is: male-dominated - approaches to art historical practices still preside. As Sanne comments in her article Waiter, There's a Woman in My Soup, one merely has to look through one of the most popular surveys of Danish art history: Dansk Kunsthistorie, by Hans Edvard Nørregård-Nielsen, to be convinced of this tendency. One finds only four female artists represented in Nørregård-Nielsen's history of art, which covers a time span of a 1000 years. This speaks for itself.    With inserts, the three editors hope to create a space, in which women artists can stand forward - without their competing brothers. "Moreover, being on the internet means that inserts has a potential circle of 'surfing' readers that reaches far beyond the traditional buyers of art historical books." Inserts can best be described as a documentation of the artists' creative production. Artworks, biographies, and texts are the main components. The texts are all written by female art historians or artists, and they unfold the feministic project that lies within inserts. It is produced by artnode,dk, a pioneering forum for visual art on the internet that is part of a Swedish project: artnode, se.    "Originally, inserts was planned to be published as a book. But as we could not find sufficient funding, we came up with an alternative - the internet," Sanne explains.    This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Being situated on the internet makes it possible for the editors to update and expand the documentation continuously, and thereby regard it as an ever-growing project that can only improve in time.    "We want to go on for ever!" Sanne laughs. "To begin with, we are introducing 69 artists, as this was the number we originally calculated with for the book. When it comes to books, this number is quite sufficient. However, as we are now publishing on the internet, we are able to add as much information as we please. Moreover, being on the internet means that inserts has a potential circle of 'surfing' readers that reaches far beyond the traditional buyers of art historical books," Sanne says.    By going beyond a circle of readers that for the most part can be defines as intellectuals, academics and students, inserts has thus markedly increased its possibilities for success. With a vast and varied group of 'surfing' readers, the female artists have a chance of becoming known in a wide range of milieus.    "Of course it would be wonderful if inserts could function as a showroom for readers, who might actually be interested in buying the art that inserts is exhibiting, e.g. business people in private companies, offices and the like. But this commercial aspect was in no way our primary intention, when we first went to work on this project. It is, first of all, our intention to make people aware of the gender roles that still exist in the art world, and hereby to draw attention to the neglected works of female artists. Furthermore, we want to ensure an art historical documentation of women's art and productivity," Sanne says.    As no one else seems to be interested in this kind of art historical documentation, it is a most welcome project the three editors have launched into. "Blaming men for the fact that women have a hard time making a professional artistic career must be a psychic self-defence for women...Women continue to be oppressed, not so much by anything external, but more by our own inner ghosts." Although inserts presents itself as a feministic project, it is far from an aggressive outlet directed towards the male 'oppressors' of the art world. The various female writers have no difficulty in addressing women themselves, when talking about oppressive forces that work against female artists.    In her article Where Are All the Women, the artist Kirstine Roepstorff writes: "Blaming men for the fact that women have a hard time making a professional artistic career must be a psychic self-defence for women...Women continue to be oppressed, not so much by anything external, but more by our own inner ghosts."    Accordingly, the criteria for selecting the 69 artists are not associated with the fact that the female artists have something in common precisely because they are all women. Neither is it the wish of the editors to create a praxis of art historical writing that is solely restricted to women. In other words, inserts is not a statement that reflects female artists as opposed to male artists, whereby women's art would constantly be seen as a negative print that is reacting to the impulses of a male, artistic expression. Instead, inserts is a statement about female artists on their own terms - as artists that create complete art, and not just oppositional art.    Thus, the artists represented are not especially concerned with feministic issues in their art practices. The artists chosen are first of all the ones that have made their mark in the Danish art world in the 80'es and the 90'es. Besides, there is a group of artists represented that are still attending the Royal Danish Art Academy as students. At the Academy they have all, in one way or the other, contributed to bringing female art practices into focus, again - not by creating feministic art, but by organising study groups and seminars that highlight the issues of gender roles in the art world. The offspring of this activity was the lack of women professors at the Academy. Apparently, this is about to change. In which case the female students, who are responsible for the initiative, must be given some credit. To the introducing question: Will there be women artists in the art history of the future? - inserts in itself gives rise to an answer. With this electronic form of documenting women's art easy access to information is established, which will enlighten its readers on an overlooked agenda: female artists. The fact that Denmark has hitherto been falling behind, when it comes to a rewriting of its art history that would make way for female artists, could hereby be compensated. Hereafter, the established Danish art institutions will hopefully reconsider their politics on gender issues.~