Jane Jin Kaisen

Jane Jin Kaisen (born 28 May 1980) is a visual artist and filmmaker based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Working within video installation, narrative experimental film, photographic installation, performance, and text, Kaisen’s artistic practice is informed by extensive interdisciplinary research, creative collaborations, and engagement with diverse communities. Much of her work revolves around her birthplace, Jeju Island, the site of a yearlong anticolonial uprising in 1948 in opposition to US military occupation.

Early life and education Kaisen was born on Jeju Island, South Korea, and adopted to Denmark in 1980. She was a Professor at the School of Media Arts at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts from 2020 to 2026.

She received her PhD from University of Copenhagen, her MA in Media Art and Art Theory from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studio Art from The University of California Los Angeles. She also participated in The Whitney Independent Study Program.

Career Her narrative experimental film The Woman, The Orphan, and The Tiger (2010) made in collaboration with Guston Sondin-Kung explores the gendered effects of war and militarism by tracing a genealogy between three generations of women.

In 2011, Kaisen began the multi-channel video installation Reiterations of Dissent for which she was awarded the Montana ENTERPRIZE. The piece has been exhibited widely and in multiple formats, among others at Asia Culture Center (KR), Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art (KR), Aarhus Kunstbygning (DK), Kunsthallen Brandts (DK), Sonoma County Museum (USA), and The Jeju April 3 Peace Park (KR).

Kaisen is the co-founder of the artist unit itinerant with Guston Sondin Kung and together they have organized and curated a series of art exhibitions and events. She is also co-founder of the artist groups UFOlab (Unidentified Foreign Object Laboratory) with Anna Jin Hwa Borstam, Charlotte Kim Boed, Jette Hye Jin Mortensen and Trine Meesook Gleerup) as well as the artist group Orientity along with Natsue Haji OH, Kimura byol-nathalie lemoine, Adel KsK, Raymond Hahn, Naomi K. Long. The artist group Orientity has exhibited together in Kyoto Art Center (2004), in Hong Kong at Fringe Club (2005), in Montreal at Galerie La Centrale (2007), in Grenoble at la Maison Internationale (2008), in Lille at Maison Folies (2009) and at Art Space C, Jeju Korea (2021).

Kaisen has also curated exhibitions and events. She was a curator of the 10th Open International Performance Art Festival in 2009 in Beijing, China, which included performance artists from many different countries. Jane Jin Kaisen represented Korea at the 58th Venice Biennale with the film installation Community of Parting (2019). Her exhibition of the samle title at Kunsthal Charlottenborg was awarded “Exhibition of the Year 2020” by AICA - International Association of Art Critics in Denmark. Kaisen is the recipient of significant awards and recognition grants, including the Ole Haslund’s Artist Grant (2025), the Beckett-Prize (2023), the New Carlsberg Foundation Artist Grant (2023), a 3-year work grant from the Danish Arts Foundation (2022) and Montana ENTERPRIZE (2011) at Brandts. Recently Kaisen has participated in biennials such as the 13th Seoul MediaCity Biennale 2025, the 13th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art 2025, the 36th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts 2025, and the Hawaii Triennial 2025.

Selected solo exhibitions

2024

Halmang, Martin Asbæk Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark Burial of this Order, Gallery TPW, Toronto, Canada Halmang, esea contemporary, UK

2023

Braiding and Mending, The Image Centre, Toronto, Canada Of Specters or Returns, Le Bicolore, Paris, France Currents, Fotografisk Center, Copenhagen, Denmark

2021

Community of Parting, Art Sonje Center, Korea Parallax Conjunctures, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, United States

2020

Of Specters or Returns, Gallery damdam, Korean Cultural Center, Germany Community of Parting, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark

2019

The Woman, The Orphan, and The Tiger, Seoul International New Media Festival, Korea Of Specters – or Returns, Inter Arts Center, Sweden

2015

Of Specters – or Returns, Astrid Noack's Atelier, Copenhagen, Denmark Sites of Translation, Yonsei University, Underwood International College, Korea Loving Belinda, Galleri Image, Aarhus, Denmark

2013

Jane Jin Kaisen – Reiterations of Dissent, Jeju April 3 Peace Park, Korea Jane Jin Kaisen – Solo Exhibition, Art Space C, Korea Revolution is not a Bird's Ete View..., Officin, Copenhagen, Denmark

2012

Dissident Translations, Kunsthal Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark

2011

The Woman, The Orphan, and the Tiger w. Guston Sondin-Kung, Vox Populi Gallery, USA

Selected group exhibitions and film screenings

2026

K-Now! Korean Video Art Today, MASI Lugano, Switzerland A Museum Founded on Artworks - 2022-2024 New Acquisitions, Daejeon Museum of Art, Korea

2025

With the certainty of tides, still I rise, John Hansard Gallery, UK Séance: Technology of the Spirit, 13th Seoul Mediacity Biennale, Seoul Museum of Art, Korea passing the fugitive on, 13th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, Germany The Oracle: On Fantasy and Freedom, 36th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts, Slovenia

2024

Korea Artist Prize 2024, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea The Age of Human Wisdom, the 3rd Jinan International Biennale, China One Way Ashore, a Thousand Channels, Time Museum, China After the Sun, Gammel Strand, Copenhagen, Denmark Forms of the Shadow, Secession, Vienna, Austria After the Sun / Forecast from the North, Buffalo AKG Art Museum, US Film Screening: Burial of this Order, University of California Berkeley, followed by talk and Q&A

2023

Myriad of Wishes, Gyeong Art Museum, Korea Between Waves, The Brooklyn Rail, New York, US Forest of Being Time, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan Contexts of Existence, Musée d'Art De Joliette, Quebec, Canada The Woman, The Orphan and The Tiger as part of the series Power of Seeing, Cornell University, US Burial of this Order, Cinera World Premiere, CPH:DOX, Copenhagen, Denmark

2022

Ceremony (Burial of an Undead World), Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Germany Korean Diaspora - Ricepaper Airplane, Incheon Art Platform, Korea Checkpont. Border views from Korea, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany

2021

After Hope – Voices of Resistance, The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, United States At the Same Time, Jeju Museum of Art, Korea

2020

Pan Austro-Nesian, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Art, Taiwan Frequencies of Tradition, Times Art Museum, China Negotiating Borders, Foundation Fiminco, France Community of Parting, DMZ International Documentary Film Festival, Korea Community of Parting, 8th Diaspora Film Festival, Korea Our World is Burning, Palais de Tokyo, France Born, A Woman, Suwon Museum of Art, Korea Time Share, Performa Radical Broadcast, United States History Has Failed Us, but No Matter, Arko Art Center, Korea Screening of Community of Parting co-presented with GYOPO, Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, United States Precarious Life – Silence, Memory and Fictions, Onsugonggan, South Korea

2019

History Has Failed Us, But No Matter, 58th Venice Biennale Korean Pavilion, Italy Neither black/red/yellow nor woman, Times Art Center Berlin, Germany Screening of Tale of One or Many Mountains, DMZ International Documentary Film Festival, Korea Zero Gravity World, SeMA Nam Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea

2018

Counter Memory & Reconstruction of Body Movement, Seoul International NewMedia Festival, Seoul Art Cinema, South Korea 10th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival, South Korea Decolonizing Appearance, CAMP / Center for Art on Migration Politics, Copenhagen, Denmark Film screening as part of Haegue Yang's exhibition Voices of Dispersion, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany Jeju 4.3 is Now Our History, National Museum of Contemporary Korean History, South Korea Post Trauma: The Special Exhibition of the 70th Anniversary of the Jeju Massacre, Jeju Museum of Art, South Korea Forged from the Collective Memory, ArtSpace C / Artspace IAa Gallery, South Korea Forum Expanded: A Mechanism Capable of Changing itself, 68th Berlin International Film Festival

2017

Border 155, Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea Today's Yesterday, 1st Anren Biennale, China, Today's Yesterday Does Europe Exist? V2.0, ARTos Foundation, Cyprus Tiempos Migratorios, Biennial ASAB, Columbia The Promise and Compromise of Translation, Four Boxes Gallery, Denmark Tourism, Jeju Biennale, Jeju Museum of Art, South Korea Asian Diva: The Muse and the Monster, Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea Soil and Stones, Souls and Songs, Art Center at the Jim Thompson House, Thailand 2 or 3 Tigers, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Germany 2nd Changjiang International Photography and Video Biennale, China Nordic Delights, Finnish Museum of Photography, Finland The Time Share Project – The Real DMZ Project: The Aarhus Edition, Kunsthal Aarhus, Denmark Soil and Stones, Souls and Songs, ParaSite, Hong Kong Melancholia: Archipelago Journal screening of The Woman, The Orphan, and The Tiger, Enclave, United Kingdom Rough Trade, 68 Art Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark Nordic Delights, Fotografisk Center, Copenhagen, Denmark Film screenings: The Woman, The Orphan, and the Tiger & Reiterations of Dissent, New York University, United States Film screenings: The Woman, The Orphan, and The Tiger & Reiterations of Dissent, University of California San Diego, United States House of Memories, Glasmoog, Raum Für Kunst & Diskurs, Cologne, Germany Korea Film Archive, Feminism Video Artivist Biennale 2016, South Korea Crossing the Line: Contemporary Art From Denmark, Critical Distance Center for Curators, Canada Soil and Stones, Souls and Songs, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Philippines Vulnerability Matters Laboratory, Rauma Biennale Balticum, Finland For More Than One Voice: performative reading with Stina Hasse, Den Frie Udstillingsbygning, Copenhagen, Denmark ArtSpectrum, Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, South Korea Nordic Delights, Oslo Kunstforening, Oslo, Norway The Woman, The Orphan, and The Tiger, New York University, Department of East Asian Studies, USA

2015 The Woman, The Orphan, and The Tiger, Husets Biograf, Copenhagen, Denmark A Feminist Culture Reader, Danske Grafikeres Hus, Denmark Interrupted Survey: Fractured Modern Mythologies, Asian Culture Center, South Korea, Glocal Panorama, Seoul International NewMedia Festival, South Korea Los Archivos del Cuerpo, Emerson College Huret & Spector Gallery, United States Reiterations of Dissent, Raindance Film Centre, London, United Kingdom Reiterations of Dissent, AAS Film Expo, Chicago, United States Rencontres Internationales video archive, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Germany Arkiv over Hvidme, The National Gallery of Denmark – The Royal Cast Collection, Denmark

2014

Reiterations of Dissent selected as opening film, Seoul International NewMedia Festival, South Korea Exclusion + Possibility, Gallery Zandari, South Korea Camelia Has Fallen: Contemporary Korean Artists Reflect on the Jeju Uprising, Sonoma County Museum of Art, United States

2013

Women Commentators, Center for contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Poland Tell Me Her Story, Coreana Museum, South Korea The Beginning is Always Today: Contemporary Feminist Art in Scandinavia, Sørlandet Art Museum, Norway War Baby/Love Child, Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience & DePaul Art Museum, United States Visualising Affect, Lewisham Arthouse, United Kingdom Strom Festival, Kunsthaus Rheania, Germany The Nordic Model, Malmo Art Museum, Malmö, Sweden Dear Curator, Curate Me, Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Indonesia War Baby / Love Child, DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, United States Korean American Film Festival New York, Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Art Gallery, New York, United States

2012

7 Generous Gestures, Galleri Lars Olsen, Denmark Women In-Between: Asian Women Artists 1984–2012, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan ENTER II, Kunsthallen Brandts, Denmark, ENTER II Videonale13 Festival for Contemporary Art, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany FOKUS Video Art Festival, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen, Denmark IN THE ACT, Malmö Konsthall, Sweden, IN THE ACT ACTS, Roskilde Museum for Contemporary Art, Denmark 3 films by Jane Jin Kaisen, Øst For Paradis Cinema, Aarhus, Denmark Videonale13 Festival for Contemporary Art, Ars Cameralis, Poland Videonale13 Festival for Contemporary Art, Gallery of Modern Art Glasgow, Scotland Videonale13 Festival for Contemporary Art, Künstlerhaus Dortmund, Germany Korean American Film Festival New York, United States Jeju International Women's Film Festival, South Korea Island of Stone shown as closing film, Seoul Human Rights Film Festival, South Korea

2010

Crossing the Sea, Jeju National Museum, South Korea MFA2010, The Wight Gallery, UCLA, United States Infr’acton Festival International d’art Performance, Sete, France Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Japan Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival, Taiwan The Dialogic Imagination, IASPIS, Sweden

2009

2nd Incheon Women Artists Biennale, South Korea EXIT09, Kunstforeningen Gl. Strand, Copenhagen, Denmark Boarding Bridges, Kring Gallery, South Korea Migrations, Municipal Art Gallery of Kalamata, Greece Borders, Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, New York, United States 2nd Asian Women's Film Festival Berlin, Germany 25th International Asia Pacific Film Festival Los Angeles, United States Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Japan

2008

Breaking Out, Gana Art Gallery New York, United States The last Book Project, Buenos Aires National Library, Argentina 2nd Deformes Biennial, Gallery Metropolitana, Santiago, Chile Unnamable Name, Tompkin's County Public Library, New York, United States Privilege Walk, Lilith Performance Studio, Sweden This is not a Koreanobela: a film trilogy, The Green Papaya Gallery, Philippines

2007

Traces in Photography, The National Museum of Photography, Denmark Orientity Exhibition, Gallery La Centrale, Montreal, Canada Exquisite Crisis and Encounters, New York University, United States Visions from the Periphery, Kyunghee University Art Museum, South Korea

2006

South Korea as part of UFOlab: UFOlab Banana Power, 6th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea Rethinking Nordic Colonialism, The Faroe Islands National Art Museum Alternative Art Fair, Gallery Pixel, Denmark Global Alien Television, Ssamzie Space, South Korea International Indonesia Performance Art Event, National Gallery, Indonesia 4th DaDao Live Art Festival, 798 Art Zone, Beijing, China International Film and Video Festival, Hong Kong Arts Center, Hong Kong Malmo International Film Festival, Sweden

2005

Accent, Museum for Contemporary Art Roskilde, Denmark Skin Deep, Echo Park Film Center, United States Bandits-Mages International Media Festival, Bourges, France

2004

AREUM Vessel, Kyoto Museum of Art, Japan Orientity Exhibition, Kyoto Arts Center, Japan Our adoptee, Our Alien, Keumsan Gallery & Dongsanbang Gallery, South Korea Minority Report, Aarhus Kunstbygning, Denmark

Awards In 2008, she received the AHL Foundation Visual Arts award at Gana Art NY.

In 2011, she received the award Montana Enterprize at Kunsthallen Brandts.

In 2014, she was the recipient of the Mads Øvlisen PhD scholarship from the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

In 2021, Jane Jin Kaisen's exhibition Community of Parting at Kunsthal Charlottenborg was awarded "Exhibition of the Year 2020" by AICA - International Association of Art Critics, Denmark.

In 2022, she received a 3-year work grant from the Danish Arts Foundation.

In 2023, she received the New Carlsberg Foundation Artist Grant.

In 2023, she received the Beckett-Prize.

In 2025, she received Ole Haslund’s Artist Grant.