Kristoffer Ørum

Kristoffer Ørum

Local. Copenhagen and Aarhus, mostly.

Not research. The works were made first and explained afterwards.

Not a joke.

A documentary practice. Every work here has an address and a date.

An artist who makes things up about real places.

Works with machines that are confidently wrong.

The project was presented as part of the group exhibition Coming From at Overgaden Institute of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen. Auto Navigate My History, 2014

The project originated from a beetroot anecdote that was strange in itself: the moment when, looking at beetroots in a shopping bag, one seemed to resemble the artist's grandmother's nose, or perhaps Putin's nose from a Facebook image. Putins Nose, 2018

It was accompanied by scholarly publication and received coverage in Danish art press. Signal_Crayfish, 2020

The Danish Arts Foundation's support enabled the presentation of the work in Vermont, introducing international digital art practices to the local community. Mundane Monsters, 2022

In the post-totalitarian context of Latvia, where memory is often manipulated for political purposes, the work offers a reminder that the past is not fixed and demonstrates the fluidity of historical narratives. Monuments of A Fictitious Past, 2024

Curated by Kevin Malcolm (Vermilion Sands), the show brings together works by Jamila Drott, Maxime Hourani, Maia Torp Neergaard, and Kristoffer Ørum. Even the City Dreams of Being Another, 2025

Retired factory workers repurpose their technical knowledge to build speakers and maintain audio infrastructure, passing skills across generations. Even the City Dreams of Being Another, 2025

In Aalborg, at Nordkraft the project was hosted in a former power plant turned cultural venue. Mundane Heroics, 2019

The project dismantles these logics and scrambles their effects. Watershed, 2025

Affluence without abundance was a video installation featuring a giant 3D-printed oyster that presented a speculative future scenario where the earth is covered by an endless ocean and people live in giant oysters. Affluence without abundance, 2021

The work was installed in the lobby of the National Danish Broadcaster (DR) as part of Glowing Climate, organized by Illumenarts in 2009. The Wave, 2009

Instead of treating these models as definitive or universal, the project approaches them as partial and provisional—open to reinterpretation, modification, and play. Diffused States (Vancouver), 2025

When compositional and editorial hierarchies are systematically dismantled, how does the perceived importance of visual information change? Watershed, 2025

The work examined how digital recognition systems and facial detection algorithms influence perception and identity. Putins Nose, 2018

*KAOS* is an interactive iPad app created in collaboration with poet Ursula Andkjær Olsen. KAOS, 2012

The project was presented as part of the Alternativa 2011–2012 festival, a contemporary art festival in Gdańsk that focused on experimental and interdisciplinary approaches to art and culture. A Subjective History of Gdańsk, 2011

The installation operated both as physical presence at ARoS Public and as part of the parallel online exhibition, extending the work virtually with supplementary material. Signal_Crayfish, 2021

A large yellow-green crayfish was positioned in the gallery window. Signal_Crayfish, 2020

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

About this website This is one of many possible records of Kristoffer Ørum's work, but it's never going to be complete.

The project used the signal crayfish as a figure for examining digital surveillance and mapping of human movement through wireless networks. Signal_Crayfish, 2020

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

Yet, as critics such as Allan Sekula have argued, photography has never been a transparent medium; it has always been a construction. Watershed, 2025

These events never happened; the project sets out what might have been possible. Frihed, Lighed Og Hip-Hop, 2023

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

The selected sites appear to lack history or unique features, yet they contain complex layers of information and hidden connections. Topographies of the Insignificant, 2010

The wireless transmissions and video projections created an atmosphere where technology and nature intersected in unexpected ways. Mundane Monsters, 2022

A protestor’s sign, a celebrity’s face, a patch of sky, or a piece of rubble—all are treated as equivalent grayscale image data to be segmented and archived. Watershed, 2025

The headline read "The Inscrutable Face of Russia." This sparked reflections on how much difference there actually is between the paranoid gaze of computer surveillance technologies and that of human beings. Putin's Nose, 2019

Bænkebider flok (Woodlouse Flock) on the floor. Leddyrsomsorg / Arthropod Care, 2026

Children and young people modified everyday objects such as chairs, umbrellas, tools, or clothing into hybrid sculptural forms. Mundane Heroics, 2019

The work was part of the group exhibition "Perpetual Interpreter" at Lokale in Copenhagen, co-curated with Anders Visti. Listening Without Ears, 2019

Anders Bojen and Kristoffer Ørum focus on Isaac Newton’s theory of gravity and the metaphors and assumptions surrounding it. Disbelieving Gravity, 2013

The installation consisted of 3D-printed crayfish models, information screens, video material, and text displays on pink pedestals. Signal_Crayfish, 2020

The installation features ephemeral, non-heroic structures that encourage scrutiny of conventional heroic narratives. Monuments of A Fictitious Past, 2024

The city of Aarhus serves as both source and subject, remixed through the lens of local imagination and global street culture. Aarhus'er #1, 2025

The Kolding Creature was a virtual three-dimensional creature created from 3D scans of local Kolding pets and conversations with their owners. The Kolding Creature, 2021

The exhibition allowed passersby to experience the animation in the context of the public street, at the junction of site-specific art and urban space. Et Andet Rum 2, 2009

Data Kroppe is a video artwork by Kristoffer Ørum, commissioned and broadcast by Danish national television (DR) and featured on DR Kulturklubben. Data Kroppe, 2017

The exhibition was part of a series of events organised by Kunsthal for Maritim Æstetik, which also included publications, debates, food events, and bus tours. Djurs Øhav, 2020

Aarhus'er #1
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