Having grown up in the suburbs of Paris, the artist has witnessed, at first hand, the consequences of the French colonization of Algeria (1830 – 1962) and experienced the reality among those left unrepresented and ‘without a voice’. As an artist, Johannes Sivertsen uses his paintings to create visual analogies by constructing fictitious parallel worlds, that are based on concrete events and people who never made it into the history books. Since Western (art) history, to a large extent, is an expression of white male narratives, victories, and views, Sivertsen considers it of paramount importance to present a new perspective that allows hitherto overlooked groups to step onto the art-historical scene and have their say.