For Olga Ravn, the interplay of mysticism, motherhood, and the material world forms the backbone of a literary exploration. In this interview, the Danish writer reflects on her ideas about work and labor and how to find traces of magic in a disenchanted modern world.
Olga Ravn’s writing pushes the boundaries of form and function, rejecting the search for definitive meaning in favor of experimentation. “Some people want to find the core of something or the essence. That doesn’t interest me at all,” she says, “It interests me much more to find the limits of what a book can do.”
In her novel The Employees, Olga Ravn explores the dynamics of work and its impact on identity and relationships. Set on a spaceship staffed by both humans and humanoids, the novel examines the intersections of labour, emotion, and existence. Through the lens of speculative fiction, Olga Ravn raises questions about the value assigned to different types of work and the ways labor shapes our sense of self: “You could say that I have more than one definition of work in my mind. One is the prevalent idea of what work is. That is, paid work. Something you do with your body that has a value.” However, she says, when working in the field of art, this idea of work quickly renders itself an absurd concept with little ties to a lived reality.
The other definition of work that interests Olga Ravn is maintenance. This type of work includes everything from maintaining a household to raising a child or performing folk magical rituals. "That work is just as laborious and demanding as a paid job but isn’t assigned value in that sense," Olga Ravn explains, pointing out how certain forms of labor remain invisible despite their societal importance.
The idea of caregiving as labor takes center stage in the novel My Work, where Olga Ravn examines the seismic shifts—physical, emotional, and existential—that come with childbirth. Like The Employees, the book was written after Olga Ravn had a child and suddenly faced the challenging reality of balancing motherhood and her career as an artist. This led her to confront and question deeply ingrained societal expectations and personal beliefs about the necessity of choosing between child and career: “I think I've written close to an idea that was almost invisible to me. It was a rather old-fashioned idea, and it's almost shameful to admit, that one has to choose between child and career. And particularly as an artist. It's the idea that the artist must sacrifice everything for art.”
However, being a mother and having responsibility for an infant whose life depends on you, the idea of sacrificing everything for art is put to the test, Olga Ravn concludes:
“If you have to sacrifice everything for art, art cannot be made by people who care for others. Those who care for children, the elderly, or are caregivers and who have to step away from art, don't have access to the field of art. That's a very provocative thought.”
Olga Ravn (b. 1986, Copenhagen) has emerged as one of the most compelling voices in contemporary literature. Known for novels such as Celestine, My Work and The Employees—the latter of which was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize—Ravn’s work interrogates themes of identity, motherhood, and the supernatural, blending the personal and the universal in narratives that are both provocative and profoundly human.
Olga Ravn was interviewed by Nanna Rebekka in Copenhagen in December 2022.
Produced and edited by Nanna Rebekka
Camera: Simon Wehye
Music: Tom Hillock and Nicolas Boscovic, Justement Music (Upright)
The video includes excerpts of the novels The Employees translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken and My Work translated from the Danish by Sophia Hersi Smith & Jennifer Russell, courtesy of New Directions.
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2024
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