person - in motion

2023

Performative conversations

A series of performative conversations conducted from October 2022 to June 2023 at Rønnebæksholm in Næstved, Copenhagen Contemporary, Kunsthal Nord in Aalborg, and Kunsthal Aarhus. The performative conversations are part of the project person – in motion, initiated and developed by visual artist Marie Thams and curator Rebekka Elisabeth Anker-Møller.

person – in motion: calls for the liberation of genders and distribution of power in the Danish language and society and consists of the art film person, shown and installed at each institution for a longer period together with the series of performative conversations with 15 leading authors, scientists, and business professionals, as well as a follow-up anthology published by Gads Forlag (in process).

A movement was created across Denmark, where four art institutions and their local audience were invited into a processing of the power of language and thus also the role of art in the development of our common culture.

Throug the project run the questions: Who is included in and develops our societal institutions? How are we shaped by language – and can we liberate the distribution of social roles and power structures by expanding the notion of citizenship through language? Who does the term “we” cover? Through the multi-voiced conversations the aim is to contribute to an increased nuance of prevailing structures and notions about body, equity and fellow human beings, and to that diversity and inclusion is ensured in all assemblies.

The contributing authors create an important cross-section between the literary and the artistic as well as current research and business life - and were all invited to write a speech on the subject based on their own professional and lived experience, to be performed at one of the institutions followed by joint conversation about gender, equity, language, working life, power structures, racialisation, bodies, and the right to define ones own life:

still image, person

still image, person
Rønnebæksholm Kunsthal, Næstved: writer and playwright Elias Sadaq, podcasters Ingrid Baraka and Naima Yasin, writer, publisher and translator Shëkufe Tadayoni Heiberg, and visual artist Marie Thams.
Photos by Christian Brems

still image, person

still image, person
Copenhagen Contemporary: writer Merete Pryds Helle, theater director and artistic director of Husets Teater Liv Helm, literary critic Nazila Kivi, director of Kvindeøkonomien (Women’s Economy) and founder and director of Værdbar Natalia Rogaczewska, and visual artist Marie Thams.
Photos by Christian Brems

still image, person

still image, person
Kunsthal Nord, Aalborg: gender and politics scientist Drude Dahlerup, writer Ida Marie Hede, gender and education sociologist and owner of Mangfold Cecilie Nørgaard, and visual artist Marie Thams.
Photos by Lasse Fischer

still image, person

still image, person
Kunsthal Aarhus: poet Caspar Eric, co-founder of consultancy and the research platform In Futurum Moussa Mchangama, linguist, author and debater Ehm Eg Miltersen, and visual artist Marie Thams.
Photos by Christian Brems

Moderators: social activist and champion of a racism-free society Mary Consolata Namagambe, feminist debater and activist Emma Holten, and curator Rebekka Elisabeth Anker-Møller.

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Exhibitions