Kristoffer Ørum
Solitary. One person decides what is documented and what is forgotten.
A lot of it is waiting for a render to finish.
Not local. Boston, Vancouver, Riga, Kraków, Oberhausen, San Francisco.
Made by hand, mostly. Cut, cast, sanded, painted.
A programmer who picks the wrong algorithm on purpose.
Research. Somebody is going to have to examine it.
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
A chair, a refrigerator door containing a bottle of milk, a platter holding a watermelon, and a breadbox with a loaf of rye bread were produced in jesmonite with inner cores of flamingo foam that were dissolved in acetone. Invisible Objects, 2016
The project formed part of a research collaboration between the participating museums and the University of Copenhagen. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
The work was documented through performance protocols and connected to broader research into facial recognition, identity, and technological surveillance through embodied experience in public space. According to the Nose, 2021
The second ten minutes show a baby sleeping, curled peacefully against a blue woodlouse. Leddyrsomsorg / Arthropod Care, 2026
Recognised Faces is an internet application by Kristoffer Ørum that ran for a year. Recognised Faces, 2014
Each scanning session lasted approximately 30 minutes and included conversations between pet owners and the artist about their animals. The Kolding Creature, 2021
Layers of paint, repurposed tools, and collective modifications create temporary architectural shifts, reflecting the rhythms of everyday life and shared space. 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
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
Et Andet Rum 2 is a site-specific 3D animation by Anders Bojen and Kristoffer Ørum. Et Andet Rum 2, 2009
The scanning process was designed to be gentle and non-intrusive for the animals whilst collecting the digital data needed to construct the hybrid creature. The Kolding Creature, 2021
Instead of being representations in a conventional sense, they functioned as productions of effects, transforming the exhibition space into an operational field based on concepts such as energy, velocity, and transformation. Coffee Lake, 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 work asks how we can imagine a future after the welfare state, now that it seems to be definitively being dismantled. Melting State, 2020
The industrial spaces provided a striking backdrop for the reimagined objects and performances. Mundane Heroics, 2019
A ghostly city that is no less real than the cities summoned forth in digital renderings by architects and planners to convince us of the future they are proposing. Brownfield Wonderland, 2022
It operates in a zone where phenomena such as computer screens, lakes of coffee, simulated fire, and collective machines all influence our conceptions and expectations of the physical world. Coffee Lake, 2019
One was an animated video about life inside an oyster. Djurs Øhav, 2020
It was coded using the then-ubiquitous Flash interactive format. Topographies of the Insignificant, 2010
They function as my avatars on social networks in an ongoing performative investigation. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
The result is a fleeting, fractured archive of the collective present—an algorithmic shadow of daily events. https://oerum.org/watershed/ Watershed, 2025
Malmö New City Hall presents a playful, speculative bureaucracy infused with hip-hop culture, where city planning unfolds through rap battles, breakdancing, and public meetings turned into performative spaces of collective decision-making. Even the City Dreams of Being Another, 2025
The artist-run space Spanien 19c used to be located in a messy and unregulated, but fairly central, part of the increasingly gentrified city of Aarhus. Brownfield Wonderland, 2022
A third video, A Song for Ming, was a karaoke track by Kristoffer Ærørum with music and performance by Josefine Struckmann. Djurs Øhav, 2020
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
Strange audio players and distorted timelines hint at other ways things could have turned out, with hip-hop positioned not as a fixed genre or imported form, but as a set of evolving principles. Aarhus'er #1, 2025
Ordinary objects—such as a box of detergent or a web browser—become the basis for fictional universes, playful interfaces, and alternative representations of the data embedded in daily life. Day to Day Data, 2008
The work takes up how electronic systems constantly push at our understanding of who we are, our history and context, suggesting that their constant misunderstanding provides opportunities to see the world with fresh eyes. Feathered Misconceptions, 2018
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
Aarhus'er #1 doesn't offer a single reading of what was or what could be. Aarhus'er #1, 2025
The performance questions traditional notions of heroic bodies and monochrome histories, imagining instead non-heroic bodies in soft, feathered institutions that function as part of a collective ecosystem. Feathered Misconceptions, 2018
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
I also do it because I, as a white, established, middle-aged male artist, embody many of the privileges and blind spots that shape both the world and the art world. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
Each contribution provided insight into the often hidden or indirect references shaping contemporary art. Auto Navigate My History, 2014
Two texts were airbrushed directly onto the wall using beetroot juice for the group exhibition *Qua Aqua* at Koldinggade 12 in Copenhagen. Qua Aqua (Beetroot Texts), 2017
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
During the exhibition a collaboration with Anders Bojen, a printer continuously produced emails describing fictional events taking place on Amager. City Planning, 2010
According to the Nose was a walking protocol that provided opportunities to consider what life would look like if you were a nose. According to the Nose, 2021
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