BIO & CV

Signe Vad, kunstner, kurator og klimaaktivist

BIO (English below)

Signe Vad (hun/dem) arbejder som kunstner med systemkritik og fremadrettet tænkning, med muligheden for at blive medskaber og med ideer for hvordan vi forestiller os anderledes systemer. Hun mener det er i transformationen, vi kan udfordre formater og finde nye repræsentationsformer. I arbejdet benytter SV de åbninger som spirer frem i lige nu og finder samarbejder med kollegaer, klimaforskere og aktivister, om åbninger hvor indsigt og sanseerfaring kan gå sammen og vise nye veje.

Kunstnerisk arbejder SV med at intervenere betragteren, f.eks. i sin udstillingspraksis når kæmpe blødrøde kødbilleder, som bryder ind i betragteren og både tiltrækker og frastøder, kortsluttes vore tillærte systemer. I det format bliver det sansede rum grænseoverskridende, ærligt og direkte. Fordi indlejret i det sanselige er en ikke-sproglig intervenering, som forbinder betragteren med sit organiske udgangspunkt og fællesskab. En fælles forbundenhed SV mener er nødvendig, for at omstille vores livsform til en fremtids-holdbar samfundskonstruktion.

Signe Vad arbejder kollaborativt, laver konstruktioner af organismer, der som myceliet bebor naturen, sværmen, flokken, en flok som billede på ny global kollektiv struktur – en ny krop? Hvor svaret bliver stykket sammen af os som fællesskab.

Signe Vad er grundlægger og part i kunst- og interventionsgruppen the Syndicate of Creatures (www.tsoc.zone), initiator af kunstprojektet Office of Emergency (www.ooe.zone), samt sammen m. Nanna G. Henningsen initierer performance-platformen Voices og Pythia (www.voicesofpythia.zone). Hun har tidligere drevet de kunstnerstyrede udstillingsplatforme KRÆ Syndikatet (2017-19), Udstillingsstedet TYS (2014-15), Galleri Signe Vad (2005-07) og I Skabet (2007-11). Er med tSoC partner i Creative Europe projektet Artist-Run Network Europe og er med til at initiere Artist-Run Research Center.

Uddannelse og relevante certificeringer
MFA, School of Photography, Göteborg Universitet 2009

ISC, Post Grad, Artistic pedagogy, Valand Academy, Göteborg Universitet 2010

Udvalgte performances, projekter og interdisciplinære værker

Der er ikke flere dukker i skabet - vi lever med svampene, Performance, Vestjyllandsudstillingen, JANUS - Vestjyllands Kunstmuseum, 2024.
Courage, Performance, dec 2023 til programmet Performance & Soup, Tårnby Park Studio, and nov. 2023 in Astrid Noacks atelier: Performance art on geo politics and climate Justice, Fundraiser for Gaza. 2023

KUNST/UTOPI/NU 1-5 Fem seminarer/workshops 2022-23 Fabrikken For Kunst og Design

Degrowth Festival, to-dages festival med oplæg, workshops og kunst, Kulturhus Island Brygge sep. 2023.

7 forskellige performances fra projektet Død over Dødsstjernen marts 2022 - marts 2023: Vartov, Fabrikken Open, Enghaveplads, Klimafolkemøde, Klimax festival Køge, Vestjyllandsudstillingen, PerformanceRum. 2022-23

Institut For Organisk Kunst, udstillingsplatform i en montre som flytter rundt. Det har været 6 udstilling er pt. 2022 – 23

Voices of Pythia – online udstillingsplatform med documentation af alle 16 performances fra Pythias Stemmer. (www.voicesofpythia.zone) 2022

Office of Emergency, Aktivistisk klima kunst projekt, Kbh Feb 2020 – 2022 (www.ooe.zone)
Pythias Stemmer – taler til tiden. 16 performances I offentligt rum. 2021 – 22

Corridors of Voices – time to speak up and listen to the birds – workshop, installation og performance SMK Artweek 2021 

Hvem Spiste Af Solen – Performance, Gul Festival, Country Town. Aug 2020

Pythias Journals, Monomedia online festival. Maj 2020

How Do We Deal with the End of the World – tSoC workshop, Plovdiv juni 2019.

Samtidskunstens Radikale Manifester, Kbh Læser. Med Mycelium og Laboratoriet for æstetik og økologi, KRÆ 2018

There are No More Dolls in the Closet, Performance, Supermarket Indenpendent Art Fair, Stockholm, 2018 og Berlin 2017

Selde Seriøst TV, Skulpturlandsby Selde 2017 – 21 (https://seldeseriosttv.wixsite.com/minhjemmeside)

KRÆ syndikatet udstillingsplatform og gruppe 2017-19

It is in the nature of beginnings performance, Black Box Gallery, København 2016
24 live shows for Serious TV 2015-16
Monitering – web-surveillance of Love alley, deltagelse på Marianne Jørgensens udstilling, Den Frie, København 2013
Monitering – web-surveillance of Love alley – Århus / København and Torpedo18 (http://torpedo18.dk/vaerkerne/signevad/index.html) 2012

Seneste soloudstillinger 

2023 COURAGE, SOL NEXØ, Nexø Bornholm, DK
2023 Blodår Dødeår, Foto- og tekstudstilling, Linie 14 og Støberiet kulturhus, Kbh N, DK

2021 All These Bright and Hazy Mornings – Break on Through to the Other Side, VSA Galleri, Gøteborg SE

2020 Triptykon of Disbelief – The Earth Say Hello, Martin Bryder Gallery, Lund SE

2019 Death to the Death Star – I Don’t Want to Move to Mars, Staldgade 74, Kbh DK

2018 Unknown Malware Delivered, Martin Bryder Gallery, Lund SE

2017 There Are No More Dolls in The Closet, Only A Respirator, >TOP Schillerpalais, Berlin DE

2016 Homo Carnõsa, Galleri Fagerstedt, Stockholm SE

2016 Selv med hænderne over dynen er jeg den farligste på min vej, Martin Bryder Gallery, Lund SE

2015 Vi har kaos i os, Udstillingsstedet TYS, København DK

2013 Engang var alle gale, seperatudstilling – Galleri Kontor Projekt, København
2013 Vi har opfundet lykken, seperatudstilling – Black Box Gallery, København
2012 Dagen fik alt til at skifte, seperatudstilling – Black Box Gallery, København
2009 Positions of Infinity, Peter Lav PHOTO GALLERY- solo exhibition
2009 Terminal Instability, Galleri Monitor – solo exhibition - Göteborg, Sverige
2009 Black Box Gallery – solo exhibition – Linz, Østrig
2008 While we Swallow Deception, Galleri Image - seperatudstilling – Århus
2007 What do you Mean by that Metaphor, Senko Studio – seperatudstilling - Viborg, Danmark

Seneste gruppeudstillinger  

2023 Økosystemisk Frihedskamp, gruppeusdtilling Biokuben, Kulturhus Islands Brygge  –  Largely (not wholly), Fabrikken For Kunst og Design  –   Vestjyllandsudstillingen, Tistrup, DK  – Drømme om Lys, udstilling Degrowth Festival, Kulturhus Islands Brygge

2022 Mykologisk Salon, Fraktal, Skørping – Hør! udstilling m lydkunstner Morten Poulsen MX3, Aalborg – Vestjyllandsudstillingen Janusbygningen Tistrup. – Klimax, Klimafestival, Køge – LUFT, Kunstpunkt, Berlin.

2021 Memoirs of the Abyss: Three Ecologies and More, SixtyEight Art Institute, Kbh  –  Countrytown, Byens kro, Kbh –  Vestjyllandsudstillingen, Tistrup, DK  –  Break Down, Mayhem, Kbh – Kollegialisme, Fabrikken for Kunst og Design, Kbh
2020 Vestjyllandsudstillingen Tistrup, DK – Catastrofe FBudstilling under OoE
2019 100, Galleri CC, Malmø, SE – Dela gärna - Please Share, Alingsås Konsthall, SE – Meat and Mysticism, Noysky projects, Los Angeles, US. – SKITSER OG VÆRKER, Fabrikken for Kunst og Design, Kbh. – Works on Paper, AIM Plovdiv, BG – WESTERN & COUNTRY, Country Town, Dybe, DK. – Vestjyllandsudstillingen, Tistrup, DK.  

2018 The Potential of Printed Matter, KRÆ, København, DK. – Supermarket independent Art Fair, Stockholm SE.

2017 A Hymn for the Slaughtered Pig, KRÆ, København. – Samtaler uden ord, Byns hegn, København – Vi Tager Intet Ansvar, KRÆ syndikatet

2016 Abracadabra, Wroclaw, Polen. Det argumenterer vi ikke for, Staldgade 74, København – Aginst the wall, Water Tower Art Fest, Sofia Bulgarien – V-dollar, contrytown/Hygum kunstmuseum, Lemvig.
2014 What should have remanied secret, has come to light, Fotogalleriet Format, Malmø. Læsehjørner TYS, Kbh. – FRAMES 2014, slideshow udstilling, GI 2014, Glasgow
2013 Territoriet, deltagelse på Marianne Jørgensens udstilling på Den Frie, København – GO WEST, Venø Galleri, Venø – GO COUNTRY AND WESTERN, Hygum Kunstmuseum, Lemvig
2012 Max A5, Kontor projekt, København – Gruppeudstilling, Torpedo 18 på Alt_Cph 12, København – Next stop Mallorca , Binisalem, Mallorca
2011 Perspectives On Black & White, Peter Lav gallery, København – We have always been here before, Galleri Rotor, Göteborg, Sverige – Screaming from the mountain , SKMU, Kristiansand, Norge – Nouvel Organon, Paris, Frankrig – Spesial Nord , Galleri Trafo, Asker, Norge – IN MY BLUE, BLUE, BLUE JEANS, KONTORprojects, København
2010 Darkcurrents, Fotogalleriet, Oslo, Norge – Private View, Artillerie, Berlin, Tyskland – Ars Electronica 2010, Black Box Gallery, Linz, Østrig
2009 Centrum för Fotografi, Stockholm, Sverige – Göteborg Konsthal, gruppeudstilling, Göteborg, Sverige –Gruppeudstilling, Fotografisk Center – København
2008 Allingsås konsthal- gruppeudstilling, Allingsås, Sverige – Black Box Gallery, Linz, Østrig – Galleri Spark, København – Galleri Pentimenti – minipresentation - Philadelphia, USA – Militær, Galleri Signe Vad –I skabet, København
2007 Galleri Rotor, Göteborg – Songs From the Basement, København – Galerie Esther Woerdehoff, Paris – The National Museeum of photography, the Collection Show, København – Seehstücke, Passentin, Mölln, Pasewalk, Tyskland – New journal, Møstingshus, København
2006 På Vej - gruppeudstilling - Galleri Nakke Hage, København – SIDESHOW, Galleri Signe Vad, København
2005 Forårsudstillingen, Charlottenborg, København – Kompilation, Demo-Rum, København – K.E, Den Fries udstillingsbygning, København – RØD ZONE, Galleri Signe Vad, København – VENUE, Galleri Signe Vad, København
2004 Kvinder stiller skarpt, Grevinde Danner, København – Forårsudstillingen, Charlottenborg, København – UNG - socialt projekt, Uturn og Øksenhallen, København
2003 Making Eyes, Fotografisk Center, København – UNG – socialt projekt, Københavns Pædagogseminarium og Familie og arbejdsmarkedsstyrelsen, København.

Curation and exhibition work

2024 Regenerative Fællesskaber del 1 og 2, performance program og performativt spiseevent, Åbent hus, Fabrikken For Kunst og Design og ART MATTER Festival
2024 Degrowth Festival - Solidaritet, samfund og spirende fremtider, Kunstprogrammet på Degrowth Festival, Kulturhuset islands Brygge
2023 Degrowth Festival - Dybe rødder, utopi og økonomi, Kunstprogrammet på Degrowth Festival, Kulturhuset islands Brygge

2023 Drømme om Lys, udstilling Degrowth Festival, Kulturhus Islands Brygge

2023 Økosystemisk Frihedskamp, udstilling og performance/workshopprogram, Biokuben, Kulturhus Islands Brygge

2022 - 23 Institut for Organisk Kunst, platform for organic exhibitions, co-curated with Nanna Gro Henningsen

2021 - 22 Voices of Pythia, 16 performances in public space, co-curated with Nanna Gro Henningsen

2020 Pythias Journals, a 4 day online monomedia festival during first Covid lock-down, co-curated with TR Kirstein

2020 Catastrophe, Facebook exhibition during corona – Pythias Journals, online monomedia festival, co-curated with TR Kirstein

2019 Meat and Mysticism, Noysky projects, Los Angeles, US. Curated in collaboration w. Michelle Appelros.
2017 Extremophiles 1 - A perfectly rational response to an insane world. KRÆ, København. Curated in collaboration w. Michelle Appelros.
2017 - Founder- and part of KRÆ syndikatet - the Syndicate of Creatures
2014 -15 Artistic director and founder of the ExhibitionspaceTYS
2013 Curator for Det fynske Kunstakademis exitshow
2012 Curator for Afgang12, Det Jyske Kunstakademis exitshow
2010 Curator for Alt_Cph 10 In Space, Fabrikken for Kunst og Design
2009 Curator for Alt_Cph 09, Fabrikken for Kunst og Design
2007-11 Artistic director Galleri I Skabet
2007 Curator of New Journal på Møstings Hus
2005-07 Artistic director Galleri Signe Vad

Other relevant projects etc.
Board member for SiS Selde, Text about ”A platform Proposal” for a publication about the artist Javier Tapia 2011 – Board member for Museet for Fotokunst , Brandts Klædefabrik 2011 - 13 – Board member for BilledKunstner Forbundet 2010-14 – Board member for Værkstedet for Fotografi 2005 - 07 – Moderator for several paneldebates and meetings at Supermarked Independent Art Fair in Stockholm 2011 - 15. – About self-organisation, lecture and debat inviteret by Valand Academy (SE) at Glasgow International, 2014 Jury-member KE 2014 – Lecture w. Meira Ahmemulic at the international conference “What is the common” Gøteborg Universitet. 2009 – Partner in the international project AIM 2010-2016.

Samlinger og legater
The Danish Art Council Collection – National Museum for Photography, the Royal Library – Hygum Kunstmuseum, Lemvig – Skåne Region Konst udvalg
Robert Frank Stipendiet - Fogtals Fotograf Pris – Akademirådet arbejdslegat 2013 – Peter, Ingrid og Ralph Hernöe's Almennyttige Fond 2014 – BKF Hæderslegat 2014 – Anne Marie Telmanyi født Catl-Neilsens fond 2015, Anna E. Munchs Legat 2017 – Bisballe Prisen 2022 – Statens kunstfond arbejdslegat 2012, 2021, 2022, 2023 og 2024.

Publikationer
Own publications: Gag Reflex ”Dear World Here is Our Response” CD collaboration with Michelle Appelros – The Paper, newspaper, Black Book Publications 2016 – Jeg faldt ud af flyet, en vildfaren dannelseshistorie af Signe Vad, Poetry, Istedgade Boghandels Forlag 2012 - What do you mean by that METAPHOR, Artist book Black Book Publications 2010
Selected Journals: Podcast interview The Untergang Armchair 2018 (https://www.culturalbandwidth.com/cultband/a-sense-of-things-ft-signe-vad-119?fbclid=IwAR3JJq1nEOa_G9aneH5Ha8CRxsCNnUX6J2kS5j_y22tGF9EjX4pjZpRiOjQ) – the AIM Network 2017 (http://signevad.dk/aiminterview.pdf) - Spesial Nord Nr. 3, 2011 – Ord&Bild 4, 2010 – Den Blå port nr 85 – Senko 01 – New Danish Art 09 - New Danish Art 08 - Katalog 19.2 2007 - Filter 1 2007 – FOIL_IANN 1 – Militær 1-4

Links
www.signevad.dk
Videoer: https://vimeo.com/user20333477/videos

Seriøst TV Selde: www.seldetv.dk
the Exhibition Space KRÆ syndikatet: www.tsoc.zone

Office of Emergency: www.ooe.zone

Voices of Pythia: www.voicesofpythia.zone

English Version

Bio

Signe Vad. Born and based in Copenhagen, DK.

Signe Vad (she/they) is an artist whose work centers on systemic critique and forward-thinking approaches, exploring the potential for co-creation and imagining alternative systems. Vad believes that transformation is the key to challenging existing formats and discovering new forms of representation. Her practice engages with emerging opportunities in the present, fostering collaborations with colleagues, climate researchers, and activists to create spaces where insight and sensory experiences converge to illuminate new possibilities.

SV's artistic practice is interdisciplinary, encompassing activist and community projects, performance art, photography, video art, installations, and web-streamed art projects. She has exhibited across Scandinavia, Europe, and the United States. Since 2005, Signe has worked as an independent curator based in the self-organized, artist-run scene. Throughout her artistic career, she has simultaneously fostered communities and created aesthetic spaces for collective engagement around art and culture.

 

Artistically, Vad seeks to disrupt the viewer’s perceptions, as seen in her exhibition practice, where e.g. massive, soft, red, meat-like images confront and engage observers—simultaneously attracting and repelling them. These works disrupt learned systems, creating a sensory space that is raw, honest, and boundary-breaking. Vad believes that within this sensory realm lies a non-verbal intervention that reconnects the viewer to their organic roots and shared humanity—a collective interconnectedness that is essential for reimagining our way of life into a sustainable societal structure.

She works collaboratively, creating constructions of organisms that, like mycelium inhabiting nature, embody the swarm, the flock—a collective image of a new global structure. Could this be a new body? A shared response constructed by us as a community.

 

As an organizer and curator, Signe Vad (SV) has developed exhibition platforms and arranged events where artists and guests can meet, experience, exhibit, and perform across disciplines.

Vad is the founder and member of the art and intervention group The Syndicate of Creatures (www.tsoc.zone), the initiator of the art project Office of Emergency (www.ooe.zone), and co-creator, with Nanna G. Henningsen, of the performance platform Voices of Pythia (www.voicesofpythia.zone).

Previously, she led the artist-run exhibition platforms KRÆ Syndikatet (2017–2019), Udstillingsstedet TYS (2014–2015), Galleri Signe Vad (2005–2007), and I Skabet (2007–2011). She was a partner in the Creative Europe project Artist-Run Network Europe and has contributed to establishing the Artist-Run Research Center (2020-2023). Vad is active in Extinction Rebellion, where she has been co-organizer/coordinator, and managed media work for the spring rebellions Vendepunktet (2022) and Befri Jorden (2023). Co-founder of Kunstnere Ser Grønt.

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Signe Vad works with the strange, the erotic, and the grotesque as lifeblood—channeling these elements into a poetic dialectic that critiques the uniquely hostile systems of power and superficial, lifeless structures. Her art delves into existential, political, and philosophical questions, from which her works on self and community, nature, coexistence, and political conditions emerge. As an artist deeply engaged in climate action, Vad incorporates degrowth advocacy and ecofeminism as integral components of her artistic practice.

Vad’s work embodies courage and the relationship between action and resistance against oppressive and destructive structures. In her performances, she draws on her experiences with nonviolent civil disobedience, reflecting on the interplay between soft and solid resistance. Her body becomes a tool for physical acts of defiance, such as blockading the mechanisms of "business as usual." Her project Death to the Death Star – A Sensoric Resistance Movement explores resistance through softness, positioning it as the antithesis of rigid, oppressive power hierarchies.

She works from a perspective where the body and nature are interconnected elements of a shared world; where the idea of kinship across species is essential to balancing the ecosystem; where the body responds intuitively to a sense of industrial alienation and contorts in screaming configurations; where natural elements become allusions to a forgotten relationship to our living planet.