PASS

The Center for Practice-based Art Studies (PASS) has finalized this semester's program, which aims to develop dialogue and collaboration between those working in the field of art, whether as artists, museum professionals, curators, academics, or in other practical contexts. In the last week of February, we will go on a nine-day study trip to Ghana (closed for applications), where we will meet people who work at and with large and small institutions, organizations, and platforms for aesthetic and discursive practices. We will travel to the capital Accra and from there to Kumasi and Tamale. Back in Copenhagen, we are once again inviting participants to the reading seminar Implications, which will meet on February 19, March 19, and May 7. This year, the focus will be on ecocriticism, with readings from books by Bruno Latour, Edouard Cohn, and Matthew Fuller/Eyal Weizman, and we encourage discussions of the aesthetic, ethical, and political implications and perspectives of understanding life, trajectories and all our relations as earthbound. On May 13, we will hold a workshop with curator and former museum director Charles Esche, and several more workshops are in the pipeline. At PASS, we are also busy preparing a summer school on epistemic justice in August (w. ESSCS), a seminar on art and science in September (w. the Nordic-Baltic Art Academies' network KUNO), a conference on privacy and slavery in October (w. Center for Privacy Studies), and a symposium on curatorial positions in the Nordic-Baltic region, also in October (w. Publics, Helsinki). Check our website for more information about these events, calls for papers, and other announcements – link in bio. We look forward to seeing you in 2026!

Sidsel Nelund ( @sidselnelund ) joins the team We are delighted to share that a new voice joined the chorus. PhD, art historian, writer, curator, lecturer, consultant, etc. Sidsel Nelund will start on 1 May in a ten-hour-a-week role, running until the end of the funding period in May 2028. Sidsel is the founder of (art re.search) and author of the book Things in Contemporary Curating: The Aesthetics of the Right to Assemble and the Need to Withdraw, published in 2023, which resonates with several of the themes we are working on at PASS. In addition to her PhD position and a postdoc role at Art as Forum, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen, Sidsel has previously held positions at several art schools and academies, e.g. at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. Over the next few years, she will, amongst other things, assist us with supervision, teaching and the development of course formats.

A Different Experimental Institutionalism Charles Esche 12 May 2026, 10:00-12:00 Place: 14.1.67 (Building 14, first floor, room 67), University of Copenhagen. South Campus. Registration: Not needed, the talk is free and open to all. In the 2000s, Charles Esche was part of a wider curatorial push to reform the existing infrastructure of public art institutions inherited from the Cold War and the ideologies of social democracy. Those institutions had allowed art to flourish in many ways under state patronage. By the 2000s, the model was exhausted and experimental or new institutionalism emerged as a response. We will outline some of the strategies that have been used in the past 20 years, looking at questions of delinking and relinking, decolonising and demodernising, renarrating, situated knowledges, arte ütil and the power of inequality and the market. Today, public institutions are facing fundamental challenges, attacked from different sides for failing to respond enough to social and political changes. Perhaps it’s time for a renewed attention to what the art institution might do for artists, and for art and culture more broadly. What remains valid from experimental institutionalism and decolonising? How do artists and curators respond to much more limited state support limited and greater ideological control? This talk will outline this trajectory for art and its place of production and display. Afterwards, we would like to encourage participants to bring their own analysis of the current situation. We will be joined by curators Nina Cramer and Ida Bencke, who will outline their own practices. We would ask some of the participants to develop short presentations to open a transgenerational discussion. Responses to prepare might address some of the following questions: What do emerging artists and curators expect of the ‘art system’? Where can you take initiatives and what seems out of your control or capacity to influence? Does the prospect of the current art scene change the way you make work or talk about it? To what extent does the current situation feel secure or sustainable? What comes next? Organisers: PhD Ida Bencke & PASS

IMPLICATIONS Session 3: Matthew Fuller & Eyal Weizman, Investigative Aesthetics: Conflicts and Commons in the Politics of Truth Date: 7 May from 13-16 Place: 21.0.47 (building 21, ground floor, room 47) at Copenhagen University, South Campus Registration: [email protected] no later than 5 May. Welcome all to the open reading seminar Implications in the Spring semester 2026, organized by the Center for Practice-based Art Studies (PASS) in collaboration with Bror Axel Dehn, PhD candidate at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies (IKK), University of Copenhagen. Join us for a reading session focusing on Investigative Aesthetics: A Collective Politics of Truth (2021) by Eyal Weizman and Matthew Fuller. The book offers a timely and urgent reflection on how truth is produced, contested, and made visible today. In a world where states, corporations, tech industries and other dominant institutions increasingly control the means of verification, sensing, and detection, the book asks how these capacities might be reclaimed as collective tools. Weizman and Fuller show that investigation is not only the domain of experts, courts, or governments, but also an aesthetic and political practice in which artists, activists, researchers, and citizens can participate. Images, sounds, testimonies, traces, and spatial data become materials through which hidden realities can be assembled and made public. Particularly relevant in an era marked by misinformation, surveillance, and contested narratives, the book insists that truth cannot depend solely on official sources. Instead, it emerges through collaborative practices of seeing, listening, interpreting, and evidencing. The session is moderated by PhD candidate Bror Axel Dehn and associate professor Michael Kjær. We serve tea and coffee. We set the stage for an engaging and thoughtful discussion of the books we have read and invite participants to bring examples and experiences from their own practice, whatever its nature may be.

"No flags stuck in their pocket": AfroScandinavian Art and Rhizomatic Blackness Lecture by Professor Monica L. Miller Time: 16 April 2026, 14:00-15:30 Place: 21.0.19 (Building 21, ground floor, room 19), University of Copenhagen. South Campus. Registration: Not needed, the lecture is free and open to all. Extending Ethelene Whitmire's "Nordic Utopian?" exploration of the experiences and artistic production of African American artists in Scandinavia, 'No flags in your pocket' places the lives and work of African American artists in Scandinavia in dialogue with contemporary AfroScandinavian artists. Revealing the dynamism of conceptions of race, racialization, and Blackness over time and across space, this talk proposes that a "rhizomatic Blackness" emerges from this conversation, a way of thinking of AfroScandinavian identity formation within and with/out the Black diaspora. Monica L. Miller is Chair and Professor of Africana Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University. A leading voice in Black fashion and dress studies, Monica also teaches and writes about Black literature, art, performance, and contemporary Black European culture. She was the Guest Curator of Superfine: Tailoring Black Style, the 2025 Costume Institute exhibition at The Met, which was inspired by her book, Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity. She is working on a book project, Blackness Swedish Style: Race and the Rhizomatics of Being which considers cultural production by the Black artists in Sweden and its connection to black European identity formation and cultural/political movements. Organizer: Moving Monuments & PASS – Center for Practice-based Art Studies, UCPH

𝗦𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗦 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔 𝗦𝘆𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘂𝗺 𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗰-𝗕𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗼𝗻 & 𝗕𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 & 𝗩𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗠𝗮𝗹𝗺ö & 𝗖𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗵𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻: 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟳𝘁𝗵 Malmö Konstmuseum 𝟮𝟴𝘁𝗵 Simian 𝟮𝟵𝘁𝗵 PASS – Center for Practice-based Art Studies, University of Copenhagen 𝗣𝗨𝗕𝗟𝗜𝗖𝗦 expands 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 activities to cohost the second in its series of four annual large scale international symposia focusing on contemporary art’s relationship to Curatorial Thinking and Publicness in, across and in relation to Finland, Nordic-Baltic region and beyond. The series of symposia happens in collaboration with a network of museum institutions, local art organisations and actors in the Nordic Region and the curatorial network of 100+ cultural actors in the Nordic-Baltic regions actively taking part in 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴, already since 2023. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 is an evolving new networked organisational framework for collaboration, one that is de-centered across the Nordic and Baltic region involving multiple partners, curatorial agencies, art institutions and learning organisations. 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 gathers past and present thinking, knowledge, and critique within practices of the curatorial. In turn, creating a space for much-needed dialogue between diverse local and international contemporary art scenes and practitioners to generate new opportunities for Finnish artists and cultural workers in the Nordic-Baltic region. 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 asks what specific modes of curatorial thinking-as-learning are taking place across the expanding contemporary art curatorial field and enabled by such an expanding educational provision. 𝗔𝗱𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰. More announcements Design: Valerio di Lucente / Jono Lewarne PUBLICS partners with Saastamoinen Foundation 2023-2028 @saastamoinenfoundation

Eagles & Seagulls – New Academic Feelings podcast episode out ❤️🔈! "It’s NOT eagles… motherfucker! It’s seagulls!!!" 🦅🚫 🐦✅ What begins as a simple linguistic slip on a windy rooftop serves as my gateway into a one-take recording about how the feeling of "being stupid" also carries a deep sense of loneliness. In this episode, I’m wondering whether the sense of alienated loneliness I can experience when encountering cultural products—as if they are placed behind transparent glass or smooth plastic shielding—is because they are mostly trying to satisfy the logics of capitalist career structures. In an attempt to break the glass surface, I will begin publishing my raw research interviews—the unpolished, "low-quality" conversations that are normally kept strictly behind the scene. About: Academic Feelings is a podcast-as-artwork about the emotional lives of artists, curators, and researchers, created by artist Rosa Marie Frang for PASS, Center for Practice-based Art Studies, at the University of Copenhagen. Supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. If you have experiences relating to the episode, we hope you will share them on our answering machine, call +45-3532-0247 Listen wherever you get your podcasts 😊and remember to subscribe to get notifications on upcoming episodes. I put a link in bio. Thank you ❤️ Rosa

PASS Study Trip to Ghana: Anyone wishing to become acquainted with Ghana's current contemporary art scene and the diversity of working and organisational forms that exist here cannot avoid a visit to Ibrahim Mahama @ibrahimmahama3 and his truly impressive Red Clay Studio in Tamale @redclay_studio The 700 km bus journey from Accra via Kumasi to Tamale took us through changing landscapes and climate zones, from dense tropical rainforest to the dry steppes of the north with red sand, thousands of termite mounds and a heat that many of us had a hard time adapting to. It was also a route that took us through towns with both legal and illegal mining. Mining has been carried out here by foreign companies since the British Empire colonised the country and until Ghana's independence in 1957 accompanied by a now largely defunct railway system. Mining has since then, in principle but not consistently, has been in Ghanaian hands. Bribery and corruption still take place in a country where foreign interests are pushing for access to underground resources. One of Ibrahim Mahama's works speaks directly to this history and to the even more extensive history that also involves the transatlantic slave trade, with shipments from the Gold Coast's trading forts – five of which were Danish – of enslaved people from across the Sahel region. Outside the dry steppe surrounding Red Clay Studio lies a large overturned industrial tank. It does not attract much attention. But it carries a story. Originally, it served as part of an industrial plant in North Carolina, where African Americans, many from the Sahel region, played a crucial role as labourers in the industrialisation of North America. Ibrahim acquired the tank from this plant and modified it into a readymade, which was exhibited at the High Line in New York under the title ‘57 Forms of Liberty’. After the exhibition period ended, he paid for the object to be transported to Red Clay in Tamale. Thereby, the circle, and the journey of the object and labour force embedded in it as so many ghosts can, in a way – albeit symbolically – be completed. Image captions in comments

PASS Study Trip to Ghana: On a trip with so many highlights, it is impossible to single out one as the most important. Kumasi, Ghana's second largest city and home to many of the country's artists and cultural workers, offered several of them. Our meeting with our generous colleagues at blaxTARLINES @blaxtarlines – a breeding ground and incubator for many Ghanaian artists and curators, a method developer, initiator of a stream of crucial exhibition events in Ghana and an active partner with connections to African, European and Asian networks – was one of these highlights. For several of us, the visit to perfocraZe International Artist Residency @perfocraze_international (pIAR), also in Kumasi, was a turning point. pIAR was initiated and is run on a daily basis by performance artist Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi, also known as crazinisT artisT. Unfortunately, she was unavailable when we visited the place. But we were welcomed with open arms by Va-Bene's partner Naa and all the residents present, and the visit culminated in a beautiful communal long table dinner in the slanting moonlight. It takes incredible courage to run a place like pIAR. Here, LGBT+ artists, writers, designers and dancers from the local scene come together with residents from all over the world to find inspiration, peace to work, community, space for experimentation and development – and a safe space to be in. In Ghana, there is a bill on the table which, if passed, could make life even more dangerous and uncertain for queer people. pIAR works tirelessly and bravely to build good relationships with the local community, which is invited in every year for LoveFeast and communal dining. Without these people and their expansive practices, not only Ghana, but the world would be a poorer place. Photo 1-5 @blaxtarlines Photo 6-10 @perfocraze_international

PASS Study Trip to Ghana: Food culture, food activism and culinary memory are an important part of what we have been interested in on our trip through Accra, Kumasi and Tamale. Like most other countries, Ghana has experienced a reduction in access to the wealth of dishes, tastes and spices that previously characterized local cuisines. Cultural homogenization, standardization of cultivation methods and prioritization of monocultures have led to a reduction or complete disappearance of locally produced crops. With “modes of organizing” as the overall theme of the trip, we look at – and taste – how small food producers are doing culinary community work, which is often also a matter of education, rebuilding skills and both individual and collective memory. The taste impressions were overwhelming when we ate at the passionate Duduhgu in Tamale, which, with a growing archive of traditional dishes and almost forgotten spices and crops, served hearty bowls of food and drink none of us had tasted before – and which would be impossible to recreate anywhere else in the world. Here, food, geography, local history and memory are closely intertwined and composed. All generously shared on site and disseminated on social media @duduhgu_experience We enjoyed amazing food in the same way made by Khadija Iddi Yussif, aka Chef Dee @iddiyussifkhadija The food she makes has been called the nouveau cuisine du Sahel. It was served in an old aeroplane in her husband Ibrahim Mahama's Red Clay Studio. The food and tastes are important, of course, but for us, the decisive factors were the approach, the process, the pedagogy, and the impact on the local community which grows around such food activities. Photo 1-6 Duduguh Photo 7-10 Khadija Iddi Yussif, aka Chef Dee

Implications 19 March 2026 Join us for the next session of the PASS Reading Seminar: Implications on 19 March, 13:00–16:00. Registration: [email protected] no later than 16 March. This session will focus on Eduardo Kohn’s influential book How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human (2013). In his book, Kohn challenges the assumption that thinking and meaning belong only to humans. He wants us to provincialize human thought. Drawing on years of ethnographic research among the Runa people of Ecuador’s Upper Amazon, he explores how humans, animals, and forests participate in shared processes of meaning-making. Using the semiotic philosophy of Charles Sanders Peirce, Kohn argues that all living beings interpret signs and respond to them, creating a vast web of communication within the forest. For the Runa, understanding the forest means learning to read these signs—animal tracks, sounds, movements, and relationships between species. The forest thus becomes more than a physical environment: it is a dynamic network of interacting minds and ‘selves’. By proposing an “anthropology beyond the human,” Kohn invites us to rethink the boundaries between nature and culture. His work opens new perspectives on environmental anthropology, multispecies ethnography, and ecological thought, suggesting that humans are only one participant within a broader community of living beings. The book ultimately asks us to reconsider how we relate to the non-human world and what it means to live ethically within shared ecosystems. We believe that this book can serve as an inspiration for practitioners in the field of art studies and look forward to reading it with you! All are welcome, including those who have not read the whole book. Please let us know if you would like to join us so that we can make appropriate amounts of coffee.

Writing with Emotions & the Question of Trust 🎙️❤️🔈! New Academic Feelings episode out! In this third and final conversation with curator and PhD fellow Ida Bencke, we talk about trust — in ourselves and in each other — and what it takes to share emotions in academic and artistic work. The conversation moves through self-esteem, shame, privilege, and the craving for more supportive and less extractive ways of being in academia and the art world. How can trust and shared vulnerability shape new ways to work, write, and think together? Academic Feelings is a podcast artwork about the emotional lives of artists, curators and researchers, created by artist Rosa Marie Frang, created for PASS, Center for Practice-based Art Studies, at The University of Copenhagen. Supported by The Novo Nordisk Foundation. Ida Bencke is an art curator and PhD Fellow at The University of Copenhagen and part of the projects Hosting Lands and Laboratory for Aesthetics and Ecology. She is also part of the research group Oikos and has taken part in the educational programme DAAS (Decolonizing Art and Architecture Studies). If you have thoughts or comments, big or small, deep or shallow, please call the Academic Feelings answering machine: 0045-3532-0247 Listen wherever you get your podcasts (link in bio) and subscribe to get the upcoming episodes 😊 Hosting Lands photo by Christian Bencke.