Kristoffer Ørum
Twenty years out of art school, and back in it.
Most of it was built on other people's work.
Mostly it is admin.
Not research. The works were made first and explained afterwards.
Solitary. One person decides what is documented and what is forgotten.
Some of it only exists as a photograph now.
Topographies of the Insignificant is a web-based project from 2010 presenting a series of micro-topological maps of ultra-local spaces in five European cities: Berlin, Bratislava, Luxembourg, Rome and Vienna. Topographies of the Insignificant, 2010
The work documents their attempts to deconstruct a person into data: to apply a label, assign a tracking ID, map the body's motion onto a skeletal grid, and strip a voice down to plain text. Speaker 1, 2026
Exhibition aboard the ship Svartlöga at Ebeltoft Fregathavnen examining climate change scenarios where Djursland becomes an archipelago. Ebeltoft After The Flood, 2021
Shown with Colette Fu, Diagonal Press / Tauba Auerbach, Kate Conlon, Myungah Hyon, Neta Bomani, Noam Youngrak Son, Sonnenzimmer / Nick Butcher, Nadine Nakanishi, Rujuta Rao, Stephanie Simek and THUNGRY / bex ya yolk. Signal_Crayfish, 2026
The system does not distinguish between what a photojournalist might frame as a central subject and what might appear incidental. Watershed, 2025
The project invited citizens to have their pets gently scanned to contribute to a composite digital monster that would inhabit the area around Borchs Gård in Kolding city centre. The Kolding Creature, 2021
Installation shots show works distributed throughout ship interior. Ebeltoft After The Flood, 2021
In Putin's Nose, a pattern recognition program cast a paranoid-critical gaze upon the exhibition's visitors. Putin's Nose, 2019
Spray was presented as both an exhibition and performance at Friisland's Center for Performance Art during Art Matter festival. Mr. Spray, 2024
It is not pure resistance, but rather an example of how critique and complicity inevitably coincide. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
It presents language as both infrastructure and interference, existing in plain sight yet obscured within the everyday signals that surround us. Wireless Walnut, 2018
The project formed part of a research collaboration between the participating museums and the University of Copenhagen. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
A local newspaper printed an account of a witness encounter with The Ballehage Woman, sponsored by tessellax.com as advertising disguised as news. The Ballehage Woman, 2009
Putin's Nose was a multi-year project that sought to turn surveillance systems' simplified identity categories and tools against themselves. Putin's Nose, 2019
The project was based on historical facts and scientific data. Djurs Øhav, 2020
The familiar rhythm of news consumption—fast, frictionless, designed for scanning—is replaced by movement through a spatial terrain. Watershed, 2025
Diffused States imagines a counterfactual technological history in which graffiti and phone phreaking converged through the discovery that modified spray paint could interact with electromagnetic infrastructure. Diffused States (Boston), 2025
At the hospital: Gør din pligt og kræv din udredning (Do Your Duty and Demand Your Assessment) and Diagnose gør stærk (Diagnosis Makes You Strong) in the corridor, Frihed, lighed & symptom (Liberty, Equality & Symptom) in the waiting room. Leddyrsomsorg / Arthropod Care, 2026
Each contribution provided insight into the often hidden or indirect references shaping contemporary art. Auto Navigate My History, 2014
Presented as a manual for the Scope 3000, it included both a personality test based on pattern perception and a how-to guide for the device. The Pattern In Us All, 2007
A key moment features a deliberately misspelled book title: "Plummed Past" instead of "Plumed Past" (feathered past becomes "blommet fortid" - flowered past in Danish), leading to the presentation of a talking plum. Feathered Misconceptions, 2018
Set in three symbolic locations—Folkets Park, Drottninggatan 6, and a speculative Malmö City Hall—the work blends archival research with fiction to propose a reparative reading of urban space. Even the City Dreams of Being Another, 2025
Rather than illustrating a lost history, the project manipulates familiar visual tropes and embraces the productive errors of AI. Aarhus'er #1, 2025
It continues a line of work on identity, architecture and urban development begun in At the Edge I (Copenhagen, 2024), now more firmly rooted in Malmö’s local context. Even the City Dreams of Being Another, 2025
To launch the project, staged reality events and a guided bus tour extended its speculative narrative into the physical city. Radiant Copenhagen, 2009
Components included routers, antennas, and cables arranged alongside the biological forms. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
Rather than proposing a return to older models, Watershed treats this uncertainty as an opportunity: a chance to experiment with new arrangements of familiar material, to test how different structures shape perception. Watershed, 2025
Original photographs were by Henrik Grønborg, with exhibition photography by Billedmageren. Depth Estimation, 2019
The same work was shown at Keramoda, Lønstrup, in 2021. Affluence without abundance, 2025
The project asks what meaning remains in news images once they are stripped of context, headlines, and captions, reduced to fragments of colour and form. Watershed, 2025
The work took the form of an artist's book featuring a 3D-printed signal crayfish sculpture on the cover. Signal_Crayfish, 2021
These hollow approximations of the original fragments are half-remembered memories made tangible. Brownfield Wonderland, 2022
The title refers to multiple senses of “diffusion”: the technical process of image generation; the social circulation of tools and knowledge; and the physical dispersal of small-scale devices across different environments. Diffused States (Vancouver), 2025
By juxtaposing the logic of role-play with the conventions of the museum, *Game Continent* created a moment of disorientation. Game Continent, 2010
On YouTube, the video “Ballehage Woman Sighting” shows the figure moving through Marselisborg Forest. The Ballehage Woman, 2009
The work takes up how repeated exposure to images of buildings sinking into rubble with glass shards and dust spreading symmetrically creates expectations that the physical world behaves the same way. Melting State, 2020
All works intentionally carry imperfections — too many fingers, floating houses, distorted details — which reveal their fictional origins. Hvidovre Makes Good Times Better, 2025
Each piece suggested both familiarity and a shift in function, as common domestic items appeared in new materials, configurations, and with networked capabilities. Invisible Objects, 2016
The work featured voices of people who inhabit these oysters, taking in post-work society, symbiotic relationships and alternative models of abundance. Affluence without abundance, 2021
Pet owners were invited to register at kolding.monster and bring their animals for scanning sessions on 24-25 September 2021 at the sustainability house on Jernbanegade 3. The Kolding Creature, 2021