Lisa Rosendahl

Lisa Rosendahl is an independent curator, writer and Professor of Exhibition Studies at Oslo National Academy of the Arts. She is a former Director of Iaspis, former Curator at Public Art Agency Sweden, and has curated exhibitions at Moderna Museet, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Trondheim Kunsthall and Tensta konsthall amongst other places. Her curatorial practice includes long term research into extractivism and industrial Modernity in Scandinavia, resulting in exhibitions such as 'The Society Machine' (Malmö Konstmuseum, 2016-17) 'Extracts from a Future History' (Public Art Agency Sweden, Luleå, 2017) and 'Rivers of Emotion, Bodies of Ore' (Trondheim Kunsthall, 2018). She was the curator of two consecutive editions of the Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (GIBCA) in 2019 and 2021. Her most recent essays on curatorial thinking include: 'Where is the Body of the Curator?' (The Edinburgh Companion to Curatorial Futures, forthcoming) 'Being Apart Together' (Open Editions, the TOGETHER issue, 2025) and 'The Biennial Form and the Narration of History' (Mousse Publishing, 2022). Her recent exhibition 'Near to the Wild Heart' was presented at Lunds Konsthall in 2024-25.

Something Moves In the Space Between

This lecture will attempt to unfold my curatorial thinking using mythical figures such as Eros and Echo as well as motifs from analytical psychology. I will address what I find most exciting and particular about curatorial narration in relation to other narrative forms and draw some outlines around the more generally applicable concept of the exhibitionary understory, which I am currently developing as part of my research. The talk will build on the ideas outlined in my recent essay Where Is the Body of the Curator? (Edinburgh Companion To Curatorial Futures, ed. El Baroni, Crone, Fuller; Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming), which discusses curatorial agency in terms of exceeding the frame of individual authorship and ownership.