Vistrup Madsen, Kristian

Photo: Frederik Worm from The Heart is a Pump. 

Kristian Vistrup Madsen proposes a practice-based PhD in which to develop the concept of Stimmung as central to curatorial practice. The term is related to voice, attunement and atmosphere, the pitch that always-already exists in a room, even before the introduction of object and subject. To begin curatorial work from this position implies a turn away from the prevalent mode of "aboutness" in art, asking us first to reckon with notions of perception, attention and being. Building on Mood Curriculum, a programme of events and podcasts hosted by Simian in 2025, and Mood Over Content, an essay published by Kunstkritikk in 2024, the projects aims to develop a mode of exhibition-making that privileges practice over theory, diffractive readings over interpretation and surrender over agency.

Kristian Vistrup Madsen is a writer and curator. His art criticisim has been published widely in magazines such as Artforum, ArtReview, Spike, e-flux, Kunstkritikk and The White Review. He is the author of numerous exhibition catalogues and monographs from institutions such as Secession, WIELS, Hamburger Bahnhof, Kunsthalle Wien and MUDAM. In 2026, he curated the tripartite exhibition The Heart is a Pump at Between Bridges in Berlin. He is the 2025 recipient of the Jürgen Ponto Stiftung Preis für Junge Kunstkritik. His book Doing Time: Essays on Using People was published by Floating Opera Press in 2021. He holds degrees from Goldsmiths and Royal College of Art. He lives in Stockholm. 
www.kristianvistrup.dk 

Main supervisor: Mara Lee Gerdén
Admitted to: Konstfack
Project period: 2026-2030