Anne Szefer Karlsen
Anne Szefer Karlsen is a curator, writer, editor and educator who has conceived of several exhibitions, publications, conferences and seminars. They has a strong interest in artistic and curatorial collaborations as well as developing the language that surrounds art productions of today, linguistically, spatially and structurally. Curatorial and editorial projects by Szefer Karlsen will generally host an international roster of artists and other contributors.
They is Professor of Curatorial Practice and currently programme director for MA Curatorial Practice at the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen (former Bergen Academy of Art and Design) (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).
Szefer Karlsen's curatorial practice span museum exhibitions, biennials, group and solo exhibitions as well as discursive events that gather communities of professionals together. Latest research based exhibition was the international group exhibition Experiences of Oil, Stavanger Art Museum, November 2002–April 2022. They was curator for The Norwegian Sculpture Biennale 2015 entitled Art Belongs to Those Who See it at the Vigeland Museum in Oslo; curator for Lofoten International Art Festival – LIAF 2013 (with Bassam el Baroni and Eva González- Sancho) entitled Just what is it that makes today so familiar, so uneasy? and Associate Curator for Research and Encounters for Biennale Bénin 2012 – Inventer le monde: l’artiste citoyen (artistic director: Abdellah Karroum). They has convened several large-scale international discursive programmes, latest the conferences Experiences of Oil (co-curated with Helga Nyman, co-convened by Prem Krishnamurty and Emily Smith) at Stavanger Art Museum, Stavanger 22–24 November 2020 and Humans of the Institution (co-curated with Vivian Ziherl) at Veeem House for performance, Amsterdam 25–27 November 2017.
Szefer Karlsen's writing has appeared in journals such as Afterall, Artforum, Billedkunst, E-flux Journal, Kunstjournalen B-post, kunstkritikk.no and in artist monographies, and anthologies such as Plasticity of the Planet: On Environmental Challenge for Art and Its Institutions (Mousse Publishing, Mediolan and Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, 2019), Of(f) Our Times: Curatorial Anachronics (Sternberg Press, 2019), Condition Report: Symposium on Building Art Institutions in Africa (Hatje Cantz, 2013) and Making Biennials in Contemporary Times (Biennial Foundation/ICCo – Instituto de Cultura Contemporânea, 2015).
Szefer Karlsen was editor for the monogtaph IL10 (Tekniski Industri, 2019) featuring the practice of artist Ingrid Lønningdal, the anthology Entangled – Texts on Textiles (Archive Books, 2024), was series editor for Responses – Opinions Informed by Practice (UiB, 2022 and 2024), and Dublett, a book series featuring artists’ works through anthologies and artists’ books (Artists: Annette Kierulf & Caroline Kierulf, Toril Johannessen, Pedro Gómez-Egaña, Elsebeth Jørgensen, Hordaland Art Centre, 2012–2016), was co-editor of Self- Organised (Open Editions/Hordaland Art Centre, 2013) and Lokalisert/Localised (Ctrl+Z Publishing, 2009).
Szefer Karlsen is trained an artist and photographer from London College of Printing (today UAL) with a BA (hons) Photography, 1996–1999, and holds a 'hovedfag' (MA equivalent) in photography from Bergen National Academy of the Arts (today KMD, UiB), 2000–2001, and was a student in the pilot programme 'Skapende kuratorpraksis' (Creative Curating) also at Bergen National Academy of the Arts, 2004–2006. They has formalised their leadership competency through the Oxford Executive Leadership Programme at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford (July–August 2021).
uib.no/en/find-employees/Anne.Szefer.Karlsen
Experiences of Oil, the conference (Norwegian only)
Experiences of Oil, the exhibition
Experiences of Oil, side programme, Curating Oil
Photo credit: Jannik Abel