In Kunsthal Aarhus, the art film person (Marie Thams, 2022) will be screened in the café area between May 11 and June 16, 2023.
The film work can be experienced Tuesday-Wednesday 11 am – 6 pm, Thursday 12-8 pm, Friday 12-6 pm, Saturday and Sunday 11 am – 5 pm.

The fourth performative conversation in the project will take place at Kunsthal Aarhus on May 11 at 5-7 pm with Caspar Eric, Moussa Mchangama, Ehm Eg Miltersen and Marie Thams moderated by Rebekka Elisabeth Anker-Møller.

Participation is free, but we recommend securing a seat by taking out a free ticket on Billetto.
➡ Sign up for free here

How are we shaped by language? Who does the concept of "we" cover? Who fills and develops our common societal institutions? And can we liberate the distribution of societal roles and power structures by expanding the notion of citizenship through language?

These questions are central to the project person – i bevægelse, which, through a publication and a series of interventions across the country, calls for a liberation of gender, body and power distribution in the Danish language and society. Through exhibition and polyphonic conversations, the traveling project contributes to an increased nuancing of prevailing structures and notions of body, equality and fellow human beings - with a desire to ensure diversity and inclusion in all assemblies.

The project unfolds between October 2022 and June 2023 at Rønnebæksholm in Næstved, Copenhagen Contemporary, Kunsthal Nord in Aalborg and Kunsthal Aarhus and takes shape through the art film person by Marie Thams (2022) and performative conversations with the participating authors.

In the art film person, Thams examines the term 'chairperson' versus 'chairman', addressing how the gendered word inserts itself into a linguistic tradition that helps to perpetuate limiting notions of gender and the distribution of roles in society. The work, which is the starting point for the whole project, puts the theme in a wider perspective and reaches out to future generations as the ones who have the right to define the language of the future and their own scope.

The project is initiated and developed by artist Marie Thams and curator Rebekka Elisabeth Anker-Møller.

Rebekka Elisabeth Anker-Møller is a freelance curator based at SixtyEight Art Institute in Copenhagen. She holds an MA in Visual Culture from the University of Copenhagen (2013) and in Curating from Aarhus University (2020). Anker-Møller's practice focuses on new materialism, social structures, gender and performativity through exhibition production, film documentation and research. She has several years of experience as a curator and has, among other things, co-run the exhibition space RØM and curated and produced exhibitions and events at Holstebro Kunstmuseum, Kunsthal Aarhus, Rønnebæksholm, Copenhagen Contemporary, VEGA and Thorvaldsens Museum.

Marie Thams is a visual artist with education from Det Kgl. Danish Academy of Fine Arts' Schools of Visual Arts (2011) and Goldsmiths, London (2009). Thams' work responds to current political and cultural structures and values, and unfolds in sound, textile and video installations, film, performance and text. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, including at Kunsten Museum of Art Aalborg, Statens Museum for Kunst, Den Frie Udstillingsbygning, Vandrehallen Kunsthal, URBANEK (London), Milestone Institute (Budapest), ARKEN Museum of Modern Art and Heartland Festival. In January 2022, Thams also took up the position as chairperson of the Danish Association of Visual Artists (Billedkunstnernes Forbund).

The participating authors create an important cross-section between the literary and the artistic, as well as current research and business - and are all invited to write a speech on the topic based on their own professional and lived experience:

Ingrid Baraka and Naima Yasin, creators of the podcast A Seat At The Table – Drude Dahlerup, women's and gender researcher, author and professor emerita - Caspar Eric, poet - Ida Marie Hede, author - Shëkufe Tadayoni Heiberg, author, literary mediator, publisher and translator - Merete Pryds Helle, author - Liv Helm, theater director and artistic director at Husets Teater - Nazila Kivi, critic, literary critic, external lecturer in gender studies and co-founder of the magazine Friktion - Moussa Mchangama, co-founder of the counseling and research platform In Futurum and former chairperson of Mino Denmark - Ehm Eg Miltersen, linguist, author and debater - Cecilie Nørgaard, sociologist of education and gender, and author - Natalia Rogaczewska, director of the Women's Economy and founder of the consultancy Værdbar - Elias Sadaq, author and playwright - Marie Thams, visual artist.

Together with Gads Forlag, a publication of the speeches is being compiled as an extension of the project.

The project is supported by the Danish Arts Foundation, Beckett-Fonden, Knud Højgaards Fond, Aalborg Municipality, Næstved Municipality and Copenhagen Contemporary.