Jakob Jakobsen
Læssøesgade 3, 4.
DK - 2200 København N
Letter of Resignation 2021
Link collection:
Memorial for the 743 prisoners on Livø from 1911 to 1961
The memorial in paper tells the largely untold story of the men who were imprisoned on the island of Livø in the early 20th century. During this time, the Danish state supported an experimental hybrid institution on Livø that was not a prison per se, but rather a facility that de facto imprisoned men deemed “unfit for society”. They were placed on the island by the state – often indefinitely – for reasons such as mental health issues, homelessness, sexual orientation, alcoholism, vagabonding, or epilepsy.
Hospital for Self Medication
The idea of opening a hospital emerged when I recently was admitted in the official hospital for a period of three months. Being there it became clear to me that I needed another hospital. We need another hospital. One that is open for experimentation in care and treatment. Not only regarding mental illness, but for all kinds of illness and disabilities that lack representation and integration in this world of relentless productivist ableism. Give us a break. Established at home in Copenhagen 2019.
Free Education! The Free University of New York, Alternate U, and Learning Liberation @ Interference Archive, NYC, 2018
Rooted in an examination of the history of the Free University of New York (FUNY), a 1960s experiment in radical education, this exhibition and event series reflected on the questions: What is a university? What does the university have that we want? What does the university have that we don’t want? How would a university look if we could build one from scratch?
By combining original archival documents from FUNY as well as from related projects, including Alternate U and the Freedom Schools movement, this exhibition explores what it means to have a space for community at the intersection of art and politics, and how we generate history together through our work in these community spaces.
Hospital Prison University Archive
Research-based archive space and radio station in Copenhagen founded in 2016 by Jakob Jakobsen. The space presents historical material - art works, printed matter, and other objects - and invites colleagues and friends to collaborate on investigating the contemporary and critical implications of the historical objects. More than 100 radio conversations have been produced so far. Follow us on Facebook and Soundcloud
We Are and We Are Not | The Revolution must be a School of Unfettered Thought
Is it possible to make a revolutionary exhibition? That was the question behind Maria Berrios and my research into and experimentation around the 1968 Havana Cultural Congress. In 2014 we visited Cuba for a month to investigate the traces of the gathering in Cuba of artists and intellectuals from all over the world to discuss culture's role within anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggle. As a part of the Congress a propaganda exhibition was arranged in the out-door/in-door Pavilion Cuba, Of the Third World, a live show with zebras and filmloops presenting the history of colonialism and its downfall due to guerilla warfare by the oppressed people of the world. Our research in Cuba were presented as a mechanical theatre installation at the 31st Bienal de São Paulo in 2014 called The Revolution must be a School of Unfettered Thought.
The Antihistory Project
The Antihistory Project is an ongoing research project into experimental educational institutions of the 1960s and 1970s. The main focus has been the Antiuniversity of London (UK 1968), New Experimental College (DK 1962-1975), Free University of New York (US 1965-1968) and Alternate U (1969-1973). The Antihistory Project has been running a research blog and produced publications on the Antiuniversity of London, New Experimental College and the Free University of New York. London, Copenhagen and New York City 2012-2018
Antiknow. A pedagogical theatre of unlearning and the limits of knowledge.
Antiknow was a collective effort into unlearning and non-knowledge as critical strategies. The term Antiknow was originally introduced by John Latham as his course title for the Antiuniversity of London in 1968. It is doubtful whether this course ever took place. The exhibition was directed by Jakob Jakobsen. Video documentation of the durational exhibition by James Price. Flattime House London 2012-2013
Trauma 1 - 11: Stories about the Copenhagen Free University and the surrounding society in the last ten years
Trauma 1-11 was an exhibition based on the Copenhagen Free University, a self-organised institution that was established by artists Henriette Heise and Jakob Jakobsen. The exhibition is made in collaboration with Emma Hedditch, Howard Slater and Anthony Davies who have close links to the Copenhagen Free University. Trauma 1-11 was a shared personal journey. Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde 2011
This World We Must Leave
This World We Must Leave – An Idea of Revolution was an exhibition that investigated the desire for a different world inherent in the rebellious or revolutionary rupture with the prevailing order. The project was organised by Mikkel Bolt and Jakob Jakobsen as a total installation at Kunsthal Århus in Denmark, November 2010. The installation was restaged at Oslo Konsthal in 2016
Billed Politik (Image Politics)
Campaign against and critique of the war of representation in the public sphere that has been raging as a part of the 'War on Terror' after the September 11th attacks in 2001. The project was an integrated exhibition and media campaign including theatre play, seminar, film screenings, and publicising. Copenhagen 2010
The Ramallah Lecture
Diary of a 6 weeks residency in 2008 in Ramallah on the the Israeli-Occupied Westbank with reflections on the artist's role in a war zone. Presented as a book and a theatre installation in the Palestinian Pavilion at the Liverpool Biennale in 2010.
Til Forstyrrelse af Samfundsordenen
(For the Disruption of the Order of Society)
Public Art project confronting the newly tightened terror laws in Denmark (and elsewhere). Copenhagen 2009
tv-tv (by means of the Wayback Machine)
Self-organised and experimental community televison station. Manifesto excepts: 'tv-tv is everyone’s television. Today it has become easy to produce tv. Technical innovation has it made possible to produce television with your own equipment. We will use and misuse all possible tools to make tv. tv-tv is broadcast quality on our terms: everyone can make tv. tv-tv is self-organized tv, neither the state's apparatus nor the market's tv. tv-tv is a network of independent producers who all are longing to make tv. tv-tv wants to break the traditional monopoly of the means of production and the right to broadcast'. Copenhagen 2005-2008
Copenhagen Free University
Self-organised and artist run research institution. The Copenhagen Free University opened in May 2001 in our flat. The Free University was an artist run institution dedicated to the production of critical consciousness and poetic language. We did not accept the so-called new knowledge economy as the framing understanding of knowledge. We worked with forms of knowledge that are fleeting, fluid, schizophrenic, uncompromising, subjective, uneconomic, acapitalist, produced in the kitchen, produced when asleep or arisen on a social excursion - collectively. Copenhagen 2001-2007
Unionising Workshop
A week-long workshop that brought together experiences and knowledge on the organising of cultural workers and workers’ solidarity in the cultural sector. The workshop was based on our experiences with setting up the UKK (Young Art Workers) in Denmark 2002. Flaxman Lodge, London 2004
Infopool / Scandinavian Situationism
Web-archive with chronology and English translations of texts from the Second Situationist International and related projects. Launched 2002
Infopool Zine and Website
Self-publishing project and critical web resource, London 2000-2009
Info Centre - Art, Architecture, Technology and Urban life
Project space and social centre, London 1998-1999
Koncern° - Skrift for Kunstnerisk-filosofisk grundforskning
(Koncern° - Journal for Artistic Philosophical Basic Research)
Artists journal and group, Copenhagen 1989-1993