Artist Ellen Nyman and art historian Nina Cramer will unfold their meeting point and collaboration in the exhibition. They will discuss Nyman’s artistic and activist project, SPACECAMPAIGN from the 1990s and 2000s. The project and its archive form the foundation for revisiting Nyman’s protests against Danish xenophobia, following their path into media narratives and art history where projections and inaccuracies abound. This return to past performances queries their resonance with the present moment, underscoring both continuity and change in local struggles around race, belonging, and politics.

Researcher and lecturer Karen Arnfred Vedel will present her work with the American modern dancer and choreographer Doug Crutchfield (1938-1989), who lived, taught, and performed in Copenhagen for almost 24 years. As project leader in the ongoing research project Knowing in Motion. Dance, Body, Archive (2023-26), Vedel is engaged in examining how corporeal knowledge and traces of choreography of the past can be combined with existing archival material, thereby contributing to knowledge of dance. Doug Crutchfield’s work is one of the project’s three areas of focus. In Remnants the film Dancing Prophet a portrait of Doug Cruchfield and his time in Denmark.

Ellen Nyman is an actress, performance artist and theatre director. She is also a PhD candidate in Performing Art​​s​​ at Stockholm University of the Arts​,​ where she is​​ currently working on her research project ​​Performative ​​​S​​​​​​trategies, ​​​D​​​​​imensions of ​​​E​​​mancipation​​.

Nina Cramer is an art historian and PhD candidate at the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Arts and Cultural Studies​​.​​​​​ ​​H​​​er current research explores artistic practices and discourses of the African diaspora in Denmark from the 1980s to the 2020s.

Doug Crutchfield (1938–1989) was an American dancer and choreographer, best known for his extensive work in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Lund, Sweden, where he taught and performed for nearly 24 years. He taught at the Royal Danish Ballet School, the Copenhagen International School of Ballet, and at Lund University. His practice was rooted in classical ballet and modern dance traditions. 

Karen Arnfred Vedel is associate professor in Theatre and Performance Studies at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies at the University of Copenhagen. Her research areas include artistic research in performing arts, dance and theatre historiography, artistic mobility, site specificity, ritual and performance theory.