Kristoffer Ørum
Local. Copenhagen and Aarhus, mostly.
A documentary practice. Every work here has an address and a date.
Twenty years out of art school, and back in it.
A sculptor. Jesmonite, foam, clay, 3D-printed plastic.
Not research. The works were made first and explained afterwards.
Research. Somebody is going to have to examine it.
What emerges is a narrative of the self that is both enacted and undermined by an indifferent system — an algorithmic account of personality, filtered through the lenses of psychology, technology and cultural expectation. AutoBiography, 2011
DIFFUSED STATES imagines an alternative trajectory for artificial intelligence—one in which computational systems develop through local, small-scale infrastructures rather than centralised corporate platforms. Diffused States (Lexington), 2025
Tank Hip-Hop established the methodology of using counterfactual storytelling to construct alternative Danish histories. Tank Hip-Hop, 2022
Taking its starting point in classical ideas about the end of the world, the exhibition mixed anxiety and faith in the future into a playful soap-opera-like narrative, relocating human fate to mysterious experiments of a distant time. The End of the Universe as We Know It?, 2007
Geometric shapes emerge from the boxes, forming a complex sculptural environment. In a Dark Room/a Storm in a Coffee Cup, 2004
The Kolding Creature was unveiled on 30 October 2021 as part of a Kunstwalk featuring multiple artists working in Kolding city centre. The Kolding Creature, 2021
By establishing rules and constraints—writing without interruption, juxtaposing unrelated images—the Surrealists sought to bypass rational control and provoke unexpected associations. Watershed, 2025
I am tired of artists who speak as if they know what is best for others, instead of investigating what is wrong with themselves. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
The installation drew from actual environmental concerns about invasive species whilst incorporating fictional elements related to digital communication networks and surveillance technologies. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
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
With deepfakes and decentralised information sources, the photograph’s credibility as evidence is under renewed scrutiny. Watershed, 2025
Through a visual language that draws on both scientific simulations and computer games, the flows of economy, knowledge and power are animated as dynamic systems. A Body Has Many Members, 2012
The role-players — dressed as green warriors and magicians — relied on grass as their main resource. Game Continent, 2010
Participants staged live tableaux in pedestrian zones and market areas, allowing encounters with everyday passersby. Mundane Heroics, 2019
The exhibition catalogue was designed in a sci-fi paperback style and published by backbonebooks. Signal_Crayfish, 2021
The exhibition took as its subject the sources of inspiration behind artistic practice, inviting 35 Danish artists to contribute an object, material, or work that revealed part of their process. Auto Navigate My History, 2014
A computer transcribes the audio files it has captured and translates them into Danish, before uploading the text to Meter’s homepage. Blind Listening, 2017
Students and staff appear as avatars moving within these systems, creating a portrait of the university as a living, shifting organism. A Body Has Many Members, 2012
Jensen; Ida Marie Hede Bertelsen; Peter Rasmussen; Kasper Hesselbjerg; David Rex; Ulrik Nørgaard; Daphne Bidstrup; Andreas Pallisgaard; and Kristin Haarløv. Radiant Copenhagen, 2009
The works form part of Ørum’s ongoing series Även staden drömmer om att vara en annan ("Even the city dreams of being another"), offering glimpses of civic and technological alternatives rooted in joy, memory, and shared invention. Even the City Dreams of Being Another, 2025
Using AI, familiar sites are transformed into speculative visions, such as Karolinelunden as a DIY amusement park or Aalborg Shipyard taken over by its workers. Aalborg Is The Future, 2024
As Judith Butler has pointed out, an acknowledgement of our interdependence can be a basis for political communities, while Sara Ahmed highlights the possibility of an “affective solidarity” built on honesty rather than claims of innocence. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
The exhibition was accompanied by the website Mundanemonsters.oerum.org and a series of interventions in the local urban space. Mundane Monsters, 2023
Works included "When nature looks back at you" (3D print, 2021), "Pearl House" (mixed media, 2020), "Habitation Oyster from Kolidsound" (3D print, 2020), and "WARNING FLOOR FLOODED DURING HIGH TIDE" (hydrographic print on cornstarch, 2021). Ebeltoft After The Flood, 2021
The work mixed factual information about signal crayfish with invented characteristics, including claims that the species can grow to 1.8 metres and possess wireless communication abilities. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
The installation was produced specifically for Interdimensionale II at Gammelgaard (September 2020) using three 4K video players (Raspberry Pi 4), three IIYAMA B2888UHSU screens, and video rendering services from foxrenderfarm.com. Melting State, 2020
The signs Prognose eller kaos (Prognosis or Chaos) and a second Leddyrsomsorg in the gallery. Leddyrsomsorg / Arthropod Care, 2026
Text panels presented both accurate biological information and fabricated technical specifications. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
A model of a Cosmic Carrot ray invented by the fictional Dr. Cosmic Carrot, 2005
We are guided by digital defaults, where smartphone cameras enhance, correct, or beautify before we even see the result. Watershed, 2025
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
Each monument is situated in a specific district or moment in Kraków’s layered history, blending archival poetics with infrastructural speculation. Monuments of a Fictional Past (Kraków Edition), 2025
From the cover of the newspaper that the greengrocer wrapped the beets in, Russian President Vladimir Putin looked up, his face now covered in beetroot juice splatter. Putin's Nose, 2019
The work contributed to ongoing conversations about how digital images and recognition technologies influence our perception of identity and political power. Putins Nose, 2018
Signal_Krebs was an installation work presented in the group exhibition "Navigeringer – På kanten af en verden i forandring". 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
The exhibition contributed to ongoing discussions about AI, storytelling, and alternative histories. Mr. Spray, 2024
Admitting this is not, in Andrea Fraser’s spirit, a defeat, but a strategy: I would rather acknowledge my own narcissism and greed and use them as material, than pretend I stand outside. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
The project examined the invasive signal crayfish species currently displacing native Danish freshwater crayfish. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
Visitors encountered these figures both inside the museum and in everyday spaces, such as the local supermarket, where baguettes from the freezer section served as swords. Game Continent, 2010