Sidse Carstens

Stills from the video Slime & Crystal/ Egg & Ash 

2022 - C4projects, Copenhagen

Sidse Carstens

Sidse Carstens holds an MFA as Animation Director from The National Film School of Denmark, but she works across media.

Overall, her artistic practice is informed by pop culture and subculture, and by the collective rituals associated with it.

Carstens latest works are characterized by equal parts sensuousness and rock’n’roll. She paraphrases the products of pop culture, but as she transforms them into, for example, a painting, a performance or physical objects, a photo, a video or a sound piece, she embeds - directly or indirectly - feminist and sensitive expressions in them.

Carstens is interested in communities and collaborations. Her practice often unfolds within a framework that she defines visually and thematically, but which is then an open invitation to participation and co-creation; a kind of scene on which a universe, a collective history, a shared bodily experience is created.

Sidse Carstens has exhibited in- and outside Denmark, including ARoS Museum (Aarhus, DK), Kunsthal Charlottenborg (Copenhagen, DK), SMK The National Gallery of Denmark (Copenhagen DK). Her films have been screened at e.g. Palais de Tokyo and Center Pompidou (Paris, FR). She lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Sidse Carstens on Instagram

Art projects

Slim & Krystal (Slime & Crystal)

Since 2018, Carstens has worked on the art project Slim & Krystal (Slime & Crystal). The title is general and covers a variety of different works - many digital - all based on studies of the YouTube and the SoMe phenomenon ASMR. Followers of the fast growing ASMR online community they sense their own bodies, by seeing and hearing how different materials are processed.

In Carstens pastel-colored ASMR universe, cyber culture and ancient kitchen spells intermingle, with a constant tension between the über-tactile and the digital. The Slim & Krystal works examine intimacy, bodily awareness and mediated digital sensuousness, while at the same time paying homage to the magic of non-productivity.

Slim & Krystal on Instagram

Slim & Krystal on Spotify

Salon Valerie Galner

Together with danish author Katrine Grünfeld, Sidse Carstens is founder of the legendary Salon Valerie Galner. For more than 10 years they have curated and presented art shows, music, literature, film and performance art. Valerie Galner exists in one place only, for one evening only.

Info about Salon Valerie Galner

Satisfying Merch

Together with printer Tina Engell Engberg Christiansen aka @trykkertarzan Carstens has formed Satisfying Merch a recurrent feministic print shop. Satisfying Merch sells their merchandise at artevents and exhibitions and every year on March 8th, they print a new limited edition of Satisfying Womens Day tees.

Info about Satisfying Merch

Hawaii - artist-run space

2016-2019 Sidse Carstens was one of the founders of Hawaii - a former porn cinema in Copenhagen, transformed into an artist-run space.

Info about Hawaii

Selected exhibitions, performances and screenings

2024:

The Fools Journey, Eighteen, Copenhagen - more info here

2023:

Udenjordisk/Extraterrestrial - Sound work by Slim & Krystal - Link to Spotify

Fri Form - Format Artspace, Copenhagen

2022:

Slime & Crystal/ Egg & Ash - C4projects, Copenhagen more info here 

2021:

Ground Healing - Slim & Krystal performance at Vild Park Festival, Nykøbing F, Denmark

Wellness - Kristianstad Konsthal, Kristianstad, Sweden more info here

2020:

Billboard Istanbul 2020 - Istanbul Turkey more info here

Woman Nature - Collaborations by Tania and Thomas Asbæk, Copenhagen

2019:

Slim & Krystal, performance co-lab with artist Nana Francisca Schottländer, Sjællandsgade Bad, Copenhagen

Nordisk Karisma Salon - Salon Valerie Galner - H15, Copenhagen

2018:

Slim & Krystal , Video og Performance - Copenhagen Photofestival 18 
Først Senere (Video) MyMusic, Digital Interactive Art Space – Vallensbæk Denmark

2017:

Low-resolution, Collage and print, Byens Kro, Copenhagen

Electric Dreams, Video, Hawaii, Copenhagen

Artbar, Salon Valerie Galner, Copenhagen Art Week

2016:

Artist talk: Mash up, Found Footage & shared artwork - Tranen, Hellerup Denmark

Først Senere, Video 26 min.  Kunsthal Charlottenborg

Mørkets Magi / Magic of Darkness - Videowork Colab, Danish Broadcasting Corporation more info here

2015: 

Sail Away - Party, performance and installation, Alt_Cph

Billboard Casablanca 2015, Casablanca Marokko

2014:

Too Unstable - Digital Interactive Art Space – Vallensbæk Denmark

2013: 

Curator at Salon Valerie Galner, Roskilde Festival, literature scene, Denmark

Jamais vu, Cafe Englen, Aarhus, Denmark

Concert and video collaboration with composer Martin Ryum - Roskilde Festival

Contact, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin.

Imprint, Møntergade, Copenhagen

Distinguished from the melee… Gallery Sct. Gertrud, Malmø Sweden.

2012: 

Contact, Rencontres Internationales, Palais de Tokyo, Paris

Paper Match, Halmlageret Carlsberg, Copenhagen

Mirror/mirror, The Black Diamond, Copenhagen

Under Byen vs Sidse Carstens, Atlas Voxhall, Aarhus Festival

Under Byen vs Sidse Carstens, Theater Bremen Copenhagen

2011:  

Under Byen vs Sidse Carstens, CPH:DOX Theater Grob Copenhagen

Korus Kabaret, Video installation, Aarhus Sommeropera, Helsingør Theater, Aarhus

Focus Video Art Festival, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen

2010: 

Show Dream, Rencontres Internationales, Centre Pompidou, Paris

SHOW, Galleri Aptment, Copenhagen.

SHOW, Galleri Christensen, Nordcap, Norway.

2009: 

Hurra – video/video, AroS Aarhus Kunstmuseum

Spring exhibition, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen

2008: 

Window of opportunity, Brooklyn International Filmfestival, New York

Window of opportunity, National Gallery of Denmark – ULK, Copenhagen

2007: 

Video Waves from Denmark, Beograd

BIL, National Gallery of Denmark – ULK

Fall exhibition, Center of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen

Other work:

2013-2014: Artist in residence at IT-University of Copenhagen

2013: Teacher at University College Syddanmark, Tonespace

2011-13: Member of the Grant Selection Board for the Danish Film Directors Association

2010: Guest Editor, Danish Film Directors Association magazine, “VIDEOART/ARTFILM”

2008 Censor, The National Film School of Denmark

2004 Censor, The National Film School of Denmark

2002-08 Guest Lecturer, The National Film School of Denmark

Fellowships and Grants:

Danish Film Institute/Filmworkshop, Danish Arts Foundation, Agency for Culture and Palaces,

Danish Film Director Associations, Nordisk Film og tv fond, Film Kopi, Elli og Peter Ove Christensens travel grant