Anne Szefer Karlsen

Anne Szefer Karlsen is a curator, writer, editor and educator who has a strong interest in artistic and curatorial collaborations as well as developing the language that surrounds art productions of today – linguistically, digitally, spatially and structurally.

They is Professor of Curatorial Practice at the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen (2015–2027), and was Senior Adviser and Head of Research for Bergen Assembly (2018–2020) and Director of Hordaland Art Centre in Bergen, Norway (2008–2014).

Curatorial and editorial projects by Szefer Karlsen will generally host an international roster of artists and other contributors. Their curatorial practice spans museum exhibitions, biennials, group and solo exhibitions addressing broad audiences – as well as discursive events, gathering communities of professionals together.

Their most recent museum exhibitions were the group exhibitions Tak pracuje tkanina (The Work That Textile Does), Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź, Łódź, Poland, June–September 2023, featuring works by artist such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Geta Brătescu, Aslaug M. Juliussen and Britta Marakatt-Labba, and Experiences of Oil, Stavanger Art Museum, November 2021–April 2022 featuring works by artists such as Otobong Nkanga, Christopher Cozier, Monira Al Qadiri, Raqs Media Collective and commissions by artist such as Camille Norment and Liv Bugge.

They has convened several large-scale international discursive programmes, such as the conferences Circuits of Experiences, Research and Knowledges in different locations in Bergen 26–29 June 2025,
and Humans of the Institution (co-curated with Vivian Ziherl) at Veeem House for performance, Amsterdam 25–27 November 2017.

Their writing has appeared in journals such as Afterall, Artforum, Kunstkritikk, in artist monographs, and anthologies such as Plasticity of the Planet: On Environmental Challenge for Art and Its Institutions (2019), Of(f) Our Times: Curatorial Anachronics (2019), Making Biennials in Contemporary Times (2015) and Condition Report: Symposium on Building Art Institutions in Africa (2013).

Conferences as Curatorial Practice

For my contribution to For the Record I will reflect on the conference as a curatorial format. Conferences are not widely discussed as curatorial practice, and I will be taking the conference Circuits of Experiences, Research and Knowledges that I organised 26–29 June 2025 in Bergen/Birgon, Norway, as a starting point. This contribution will be a focused presentation of how I conceive of conferences curatorially, approaching ideas and acts of hospitality in a conceptual manner that intentionally consider the social fabric of interaction, in combination with knowledge-sharing and -production. I often feature artists’ work integrated with social strategies for conferences that I conceive of curatorially. Artistic contributions to Circuits of Experiences, Research and Knowledges were by Damir Avdagić, Gladys Kalichini, Ciara Phillips, Karolin Tampere, and Kiyoshi Yamamoto.