Kristoffer Ørum
Local. Copenhagen and Aarhus, mostly.
An artist who makes things up about real places.
Not research. The works were made first and explained afterwards.
Twenty years out of art school, and back in it.
A documentary practice. Every work here has an address and a date.
Solitary. One person decides what is documented and what is forgotten.
Google ads for tessellax.com used keywords like AROS and Sculpture by the Sea. The Ballehage Woman, 2009
Custom software automated the browsing process by reading from the recorded history file and simulating user clicks. Auto Navigate My History, 2014
Search for Carrot ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence, 2006, is a PAL DVD video with a duration of 22 minutes, created in collaboration with Anders Bojen. Search for Carrot ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence, 2006
It was accompanied by scholarly publication and received coverage in Danish art press. Signal_Crayfish, 2020
Rather than illustrating a lost history, the project manipulates familiar visual tropes and embraces the productive errors of AI. Aarhus'er #1, 2025
These scenes combined role play, sculpture, and performance into temporary worlds accessible to anyone passing by. Mundane Heroics, 2019
Each scanning session lasted approximately 30 minutes and included conversations between pet owners and the artist about their animals. The Kolding Creature, 2021
Bænkebider betragtere (Woodlouse Observers), the title of the ones placed around the hospital. Leddyrsomsorg / Arthropod Care, 2026
Its on-screen lyrics tell the factual story of a 507-year-old clam killed during the scientific process of determining its age. Djurs Øhav, 2020
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
Guests were invited to renegotiate their role — not just as viewers, but as potential participants in a system of storytelling, symbols, and rituals that reframed both the neighbourhood and the museum as shared sites of imagination. Game Continent, 2010
This duality exposes both the shortcomings of surveillance technologies and the alternative forms of perception they enact, offering a mechanical way of seeing that highlights aspects of our species that human vision alone might overlook. Recognised Faces, 2014
The exhibition Coming From took place from 23 August to 14 September 2014, with an opening on 22 August. Auto Navigate My History, 2014
The project’s online component was crafted with HTML, CSS, and Flash as a web-based work. contributors included Maja Zander; Kaspar Bonnén; Stig W Jørgensen; Palle R. Radiant Copenhagen, 2009
The faces produced through this process often appear distorted or uncanny to human eyes, yet they retain a resemblance to mainstream ideals of beauty. Recognised Faces, 2014
This forms a new layer of mediation—one that is constant, pervasive, and almost invisible. Watershed, 2025
Rather than simply discussing these themes, the performance stages a series of unstable software experiments and semi-fictional narratives, creating a situation that is deliberately out of the performer's control. It Sings for Us of What We Might Become, 2019
AALBORG ER FREMTIDEN (Aalborg Is the Future) is a public art project by Kristoffer Ørum that presents an alternative perspective on Aalborg's history. Aalborg Is The Future, 2024
Roskilde Parahistory was part of the group exhibition Kurs at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Roskilde in 2009. Roskilde Parahistory, 2009
The project was documented and promoted through Instagram, allowing for continued engagement with the speculative narratives beyond the physical exhibition period. Mr. Spray, 2024
One is pink and perforated, carrying a crown and, in mirror writing, "Find them, eat them & enjoy them" — the Danish Nature Agency's advice on the invasive signal crayfish. Signal_Crayfish, 2026
The publication set out the species' survival capabilities and cross-distance chemical communication systems, positioning the crayfish as superior to human technological networks in this comparison. Signal_Crayfish, 2021
The exhibition blurs the line between documentary and fiction, making room for the unrealised potential of the past to resurface not as nostalgia, but as unfinished possibility. Aarhus'er #1, 2025
The project was realised in three different locations, each with its own public settings and time frame. Mundane Heroics, 2019
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
A third video, A Song for Ming, was a karaoke track by Kristoffer Ærørum with music and performance by Josefine Struckmann. Djurs Øhav, 2020
In 2025, the project will travel to Krakow, Malmö, Boston, Vancouver, Lexington, and Aarhus. Hvidovre Makes Good Times Better, 2025
The project was documented in the publication "Radar Contemporary: Extensions vol I II III" by Dr. Signal_Crayfish, 2021
An actor dressed as The Ballehage Woman roamed the underbush of Marselisborg Forest near the Ballehage neighbourhood every night at dusk for a month. The Ballehage Woman, 2009
Produced for Aarhus Public Libraries and published by Haandholdt, the app was made freely available through iTunes. KAOS, 2012
At the same time, I know how effective these images are. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
The festival invited artists to work across the boundaries between history, urban space, and perception, creating site-specific works and lectures that engaged with the city’s social and architectural context. A Subjective History of Gdańsk, 2011
I miss images that are weird, flawed, or personal. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
Inside the exhibition space at Sydhavn Station (housed in a former DSB kiosk), the walls were painted with abstract graffiti and AI-generated videos showed various demonstrations and concerts related to this fictional history. Frihed, Lighed Og Hip-Hop, 2023
The work was exhibited at Museet for Samtidskunst in Roskilde, Denmark, from 13 January to 19 March 2006. Search for Carrot ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence, 2006
The work has been presented in lectures at universities, on AI, welfare mythologies and hope through the creative misuse of digital infrastructure. Frihed, Lighed Og Hip-Hop, 2023
The work renders the fragile and transient qualities of soap in digital animation, turning an everyday material into a dynamic, projected environment. Soap Particles, 2005
Kristoffer Ørum’s contribution imagines Malmö as shaped by the afterlives of its industrial past and alternative forms of civic imagination. Even the City Dreams of Being Another, 2025
The exhibition was the second presentation by OXER and was supported by Statens Kunstfond. Depth Estimation, 2019
It is this everyday, digital infra-ordinary that Watershed makes tangible. Watershed, 2025