Kuratorisk Aktion (English: curatorial action) is an independent curatorial collective engaged in decolonial, transnational feminist work. The collective was formed in 2005 by Danish independent curators Frederikke Hansen (b. 1969) and Tone Olaf Nielsen (b. 1967) with the aim to take curatorial action against the injustices and inequalities produced and sustained by the order of global capitalism.
This has resulted in an ongoing curatorial investigation into the complex relations between capitalist globalization and historical colonialism, and the ways in which coloniality’s catastrophic race- and gender-thinking continues to structure the nationalized, racialized, classed, gendered, and sexed divides of globalized corporate capitalism. In 2009 and until 2013, Faroese art historian and researcher Mirjam Joensen (b. 1979) joined the collective, offering a crucial perspective from inside the postcolonial condition. Deploying a methodology of ‘curating across capitalist divides,’ Kuratorisk Aktion strives to trouble the order of global capitalism by bringing together bodies, mentalities, and knowledges in their projects that are usually kept apart. In their broad body of productions, ranging from transdisciplinary exhibitions to film programs, publications, and public discussions, Kuratorisk Aktion has in close collaboration with artists, theorists, and activists from around the globe probed into neocolonial structures of exploitation as well as postcolonial legacies of resistance, conviviality, and sustainability. With their projects, Kuratorisk Aktion endeavors to foster decolonial knowledge, actions of protest, and bonds of solidarity that will allow for the envisioning a more just and sustainable future. The collective’s projects include: “Rethinking Nordic Colonialism: A Postcolonial Exhibition Project in Five Acts" (different locations in the Nordic region, 2006), “The Road to Mental Decolonization" (Tromsø Gallery of Contemporary Art, Norway, 2008-10), “Metropolitan Repressions" (SUM: Magazine for Contemporary Art, # 4, 2009), “TUPILAKOSAURUS: Pia Arke's Issue with Art, Ethnicity, and Colonialism, 1981-2006" (different art and cultural history museum venues in Copenhagen, Nuuk, and Umeå, 2010), “Troubling Ireland: A Cross-Borders Think Tank for Artists and Curators Engaged in Social Change" (different locations in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, 2010-11), and “TUPILAKOSAURUS: An Incomplete(able) Survey of Pia Arke's Artistic Work and Research" (Copenhagen: Kuratorisk Aktion, 2012). From 2015–20, Kuratorisk Aktion founded and directed the nonprofit exhibition space CAMP / Center for Art on Migration Politics, located in the refugee community center Trampoline House in Copenhagen. CAMP produced exhibitions, events, publications, and education programs about displacement, migration, immigration, and asylum, with the objective to, through art, stimulate greater understanding between displaced people and the communities that receive them – and to stimulate new visions for a more inclusive and equitable migration, refugee, and asylum policy. Links:
www.kuratorisk-aktion.org
www.rethinking-nordic-colonialism.org
https://denfrie.dk/udstilling/tupilakosaurus/
www.troublingireland.com www.campcph.org
http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/research/irn/resources (an interview with Kuratorisk Aktion)
http://campcph.org/camp-status-2020
Frederikke Hansen (b. 1969 in Aarhus, Denmark) holds an MA in Art History and Political Science from Aarhus University. During the 1990s, she ran and curated a number of alternative exhibition venues in Denmark and Germany – including LXX (Aarhus), Galleri Campbells Occasionally (Copenhagen), and the project space frø (Berlin). In 1997, Hansen left Denmark to make Berlin her permanent basis from where she would be curating local and international projects. Later, she moved to Zurich to work for the Kunsthalle Shedhalle, first as a curator (2000–03) and later as artistic director (2003–04). In Shedhalle, she curated a number of projects applying gender and sexuality as primary categories of analysis in order to tease out the micro- and macro-political operations of the heteronormative order in such diverse areas as the ‘family,’ the anti-war movement, and electronic pop music. In a Scandinavian context, Hansen is known for pioneering feminist and queer politics and practices in curating and writing on art. In 2008, Hansen relocated to Askeby on the island of Møn, Denmark, to practice a more simple and sustainable life. In addition to Kuratorisk Aktion, she is actively engaged in the local art scene as part of an artist collective and has held various positions at the internationally renowned Kunstalle, 44 Møen in Askeby. In 2019, she was invited to join the artistic team of the 2022 edition of documenta, "documentafifteen." Tone Olaf Nielsen (b. 1967) is a Copenhagen-based independent curator, whose practice is based on a firm belief in the ability of artistic and curatorial work to contribute to social and political transformation. With projects such as “Democracy When?! Activist Strategizing in Los Angeles" (LACE, Los Angeles, 2002) and “Minority Report: Challenging Intolerance in Contemporary Denmark" (different locations in Aarhus, Denmark, 2004), Nielsen has made significant contributions to the politically engaged ‘project exhibition’ of the late 1990s–early 2000s, advancing a conception of the curated exhibition as a transnational-transdisciplinary platform from where to address the root causes of social, economic, and environmental inequities and to present other ways of organizing the world. In 2005, Nielsen formed the decolonial, transnational feminist curatorial collective, Kuratorisk Aktion, with feminist curator Frederikke Hansen, with an aim to take curatorial action against the injustices and inequalities produced and sustained by the order of global capitalism; a collective that has received international recognition for its curatorial investigations into the aftermath of colonialism’s race and gender-thinking in our globalized present. In 2010, she co-founded the refugee justice community center Trampoline House in Copenhagen together with artists Morten Goll and Joachim Hamou and a large group of socially-engaged artists, refugee rights advocates, and asylum seekers as an antidote to Denmark’s tight asylum and immigration policies. She was Trampoline House’s program coordinator from 2010–18, after which she became the program director. In addition, from 2015–2020, she co-founded and co-directed with Frederikke Hansen CAMP / Center for Art on Migration Politics; a nonprofit exhibition space for art discussing questions of displacement, migration, immigration, and asylum located in Trampoline House. Due to lack of funding, Trampoline House closed down permanently on On Dec. 31, 2020, but has been invited to contribute to "documentafifteen" in 2022 to share its unique mission, program, and methodology. In different ways, Kuratorisk Aktion, Trampoline House, and CAMP have contributed to establishing a genuine ‘systemkritik’ in Denmark, offering platforms for anti-racist, anti-sexist, decolonial, and anti-capitalist critique and action. Nielsen holds a Cand.Phil. in Art History from the University of Copenhagen (1994) and an MA in Critical and Curatorial Studies from UCLA (2002). She has held various fixed-term curatorial positions in Scandinavia, taught in a number of educational programs in Europe, and participated in numerous international workshops and seminars. From 2005–06, she was appointed curator at NIFCA, Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art in Helsinki (together with Frederikke Hansen as Kuratorisk Aktion), and from 2007–11, she was appointed Lecturer in Applied Theory at Tromsø Academy of Contemporary Arts, Norway.
