Jakob Jakobsen

Jakob Jakobsen (1965, Copenhagen) is a visual artist, educator and activist. He was part of the Copenhagen Free University (2001-2007), an artist-run institution dedicated to the production of critical consciousness and poetic language through alternative forms of collective knowledge production. Influential in the art-activist community, the Copenhagen Free University has inspired the genesis of numerous other alternative education spaces around the world. Jakobsen also co-founded the trade union Young Art Workers (UKK) in 2002 and the artist run television station tv-tv (2005-2008). He was professor at the Funen Art Academy from 2006 to 2012. In 2016, he founded the Hospital Prison University Archive, a research-based archive space and radio station in Copenhagen.

Publications

• co-editor, Koncern° - Skrift for Kunstnerisk-filosofisk grundforskning [Koncern° - Journal for Artistic Philosophical Basic Research], 5 numbers, Copenhagen, 1989-1993. Artists' journal. [1] (Danish)

• editor, Infotainment, 6 numbers, Info Centre, 1998-1999. Self-published zine. (English)

• editor, Infopool, London, 2000-2009. Self-published zine and critical web resource. (English)

• Excursions, Experiments, Processes, Collaborations, Infopool, 2000. Pamphlet. (English)

• "Seveso Zone A", Infopool, 2000. (English)

• "The Chair Machine", Infopool, 2000. (English)

• "A new table, which might not be understood as clean in modern terms", Infopool, 2000. (English)

• "The Switch", Infopool, 2000. (English)

• The Committee of 15th July 2001 (Henriette Heise & Jakob Jakobsen), All Power to the Copenhagen Free University, Copenhagen, 2001, [5] pp. (English)

• editor, Scandinavian Situationism, 2002ff. Online archive with chronology and English translations of texts from the Second Situationist International and related projects. (English)

• Copenhagen Free University, The ABZ of the Copenhagen Free University, Copenhagen: Copenhagen Free University, Mar 2002; 3rd ed., 2006, 36 pp. A glossary of terminology developed by CFU (Henriette Heise & Jakob Jakobsen) and frequent collaborators Emma Hedditch, Anthony Davies, Ian Trowell, Howard Slater, Johnny Spencer, and David Cooper. [2] (English)/(Danish)

• "Notes on Institutions, Anti-institutions and Self-institutions", Infopool, 2003.

• Copenhagen Free University, Media Landscapes, 2006, 24 pp. With Jakob Jakobsen, Henrietta Heisse, Marina Vishmidt, Em Hedditch, and Mike Sperlinger.

• The CFU Abolition Committee of 2007 (Henriette Heise & Jakob Jakobsen), "We Have Won!" / "Vi har sejret!", 2007. (English)/(Danish)

• The Ramallah Lecture, 2010. Diary of a six-week residency in 2008 in Ramallah on the the Israeli-Occupied Westbank with reflections on the artist's role in a war zone. (English)
  • Ramallah! Ramallah!, Copenhagen: Antipyrine, 2024. Publisher. (Danish)

• editor, with Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen and Morten Visby, Billed Politik. At se er at dræbe, Copenhagen: Antipyrine, 2010, 112 pp. [3] (Danish)

• The Free U Resistance Committee of June 18 2011, "All power to the free universities of the future!" / "Al magt til fremtidens frie universiteter!", Jun 2011. Statement in relation to the outlawing of the Copenhagen Free University. (English)/(Danish)

• co-editor, Trauma 1 - 11: Stories about The Copenhagen Free University and the surrounding society in the last ten years, Roskilde: Museum of Contemporary Art, 2011, [14] pp. Exhibition guide. [4] (English)
  • Trauma 1 - 11: Fortællinger om Det Fri Universitet i København og det omgivende samfund i de sidste ti år, Roskilde: Museet for Samtidskunst, 2011, [14] pp. [5] (Danish)

• editor, with Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen, Expect Anything Fear Nothing: The Situationist Movement in Scandinavia and Elsewhere, Copenhagen: Nebula, and New York: Autonomedia, 2011, 288 pp. (English)

• editor, Antiuniversity of London, 2012, 64 pp. Published as part of the The Antihistory Project. (English)

• editor, New Experimental College, 2014, 80 pp. Published as part of the The Antihistory Project. (English),(Danish)

• editor, with Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen, Cosmonauts of the Future: Texts from the Situationist Movement in Scandinavia and Elsewhere, Copenhagen: Nebula, and New York: Autonomedia, 2015, 304 pp. (English)

• editor, Free Education! The Free University of New York, Alternate U, and Learning Liberation, Brooklyn, NY: Interference Archive, 2018. A collection of documents functioning as the catalogue for the exhibition Free Education!, held at Interference Archive from 11 October 2018 to 27 January 2019 and organised by Jakob Jakobsen and Interference Archive. Published as part of the The Antihistory Project. [6] (English)

• editor, with Mikkel Bolt, Den ny fascisme, Copenhagen: Nebula, 2020, 172 pp. [7] (Danish)

• Ophør oprør: dagbog fra en indlæggelse, Copenhagen: Antipyrine, 2020, 187 pp. Diary account of Jakobsen's three-month stay in a psychiatric hospital in Copenhagen in spring 2019. Publisher. Commentary: Marie Meier (Eftertryk). (Danish)
  • Opphør opprør: dagbok fra en innleggelse, trans. Karin Nygård, Oslo: Torpedo, 2025. Publisher. (Norwegian)

See also

• Situationist International

Links

• Website, [8]
• Copenhagen Free University, (archived), WP