Kristoffer Ørum
Made by hand, mostly. Cut, cast, sanded, painted.
The machines are collaborators and cannot be credited.
Collaborative. Most of it was made with other people.
Local. Copenhagen and Aarhus, mostly.
Comedy.
Not a joke.
Each figure is both a memory and a proposition—an echo of what might have been, and a sketch of what still could be. Monuments of a Fictional Past (Kraków Edition), 2025
For the exhibition opening, Vitar Horsens Rollespilslaug performed an InCrowd game at the art museum, bringing their practice directly into the gallery space. Everyday Heroes, 2019
Together, the elements formed a series of overlapping linguistic and visual displacements. Putin's Nose, 2019
The work was exhibited alongside Emily Rosamond's work on historical communication systems, from ancient oracles to wartime frequency-hopping technologies. 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
Diffused States was presented as part of *Data Fluencies: Tributaries*, curated by Roopa Vasudevan, which brought together artists working on the ways data can be resisted, rerouted, or reimagined outside dominant narratives. Diffused States (Vancouver), 2025
The centralised gatekeeping of 20th-century journalism has given way to fragmented, unstable formats. Watershed, 2025
Hverdagens Helte (Everyday Heroes) consists of a series of interactive sculptures created in collaboration with Vitar Horsens Rollespilslaug (role-playing association). Everyday Heroes, 2019
These moments reflect our own unstable, contradictory digital selves. Speaker 1, 2026
Additional elements included a video installation where visitors had Putin's face projected over them, making them momentarily become Putin speaking about Russian male superiority and Western decadence. Putin's Nose, 2019
Rather than corporate development, this speculative trajectory imagines ternary computing as evolving through grassroots cultures of experimentation and resistance. Diffused States (Boston), 2025
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
In a parallel way, Watershed treats the algorithm as a collaborator. 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
Putin's Nose began with an everyday moment: looking into a shopping bag full of groceries and noticing a beetroot that, for a moment, looked like the artist's Russian grandmother's nose. Putin's Nose, 2019
Historical facts, such as names of kings or weather reports, were interwoven with stories of the Rosicrucian Order, royal lizards, and extraterrestrials landing on the outskirts of town. Roskilde Parahistory, 2009
Aarhus'er #1 is the most expansive chapter in Kristoffer Ørum's ongoing counterfactual project "Frihed, lighed og hip-hop" (Freedom, Equality and Hip-Hop), created in collaboration with rapper Emilio Hestepis. Aarhus'er #1, 2025
Sometimes he has time to update it, sometimes he does not.
Especially simulations of destruction are so widespread and credible that one quickly forgets what the original physical phenomena looked like. Melting State, 2020
The series also exists as gallery installations, an artist's book and 3D prints; this is its web form. Would You Like to Know More, 2017
The sculptures were inspired by the role-players' own objects and toolkit, translating elements from their gaming practice into interactive art objects. Everyday Heroes, 2019
The work involved 3D-printing signal crayfish models equipped with electromagnetic sensing components. Signal_Crayfish, 2021
Each email contained a unique, computer-generated text announcing fictional construction projects — ranging from the plausible to the fantastic. City Planning, 2010
Each day, the system generated a new composite face from images found via Google’s lists of top search terms. Recognised Faces, 2014
Monuments of a Fictional Past (Kraków Edition) is a speculative archive of ephemeral monuments that emerge, dissolve, and resurface across Kraków’s historical and imagined timelines. Monuments of a Fictional Past (Kraków Edition), 2025
The augmented reality component allowed viewers to see additional digital layers through their smartphone cameras, revealing hidden "monsters" that existed only in the augmented space. Mundane Monsters, 2022
The work took the form of an artist's book featuring a 3D-printed signal crayfish sculpture on the cover. Signal_Crayfish, 2021
The signal crayfish is an invasive species in Danish waters. A Human Pretending To Be An Artist Pretending To Be A Crayfish, 2022
I make portraits because I would like to avoid them, but I know they are part of the game on which I depend. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
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
We are collectively searching for new grammars of public discourse. Watershed, 2025
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
Call-outs have of course played an important role in making injustices visible, but when they are based on an idea of moral purity, they also create distance. None of These Images Are of Me, 2025
By working with models that reflect the biases and gaps of their training data, DIFFUSED STATES treats these systems not as definitive or universal but as provisional, adaptable, and open to reinterpretation. Diffused States (Lexington), 2025
At the hospital: Gør din pligt og kræv din udredning (Do Your Duty and Demand Your Assessment) and Diagnose gør stærk (Diagnosis Makes You Strong) in the corridor, Frihed, lighed & symptom (Liberty, Equality & Symptom) in the waiting room. Leddyrsomsorg / Arthropod Care, 2026
The opening included a performance component set in an alternative past, presenting counterfactual work that narrated fictional relationships between political movements and cultural expression. Mr. Spray, 2024
Bojen and Ørum’s work often moves between science fiction and popular science, with references to comic books, television formats and advertising language. The End of the Universe as We Know It?, 2007
The project was realised in three different locations, each with its own public settings and time frame. Mundane Heroics, 2019
Recognized for its experimental approach, Data Kroppe is cataloged in the Danish public digital archive Vores Kunst, which preserves commissioned television art. Data Kroppe, 2017
And we interpret everything through cultural repertoires of symbols and social cues. Watershed, 2025