Origins
Origins
The Pavilion began long before it had a name.
In 2008, with Pia Poulsen, I co-founded Jambatan: a bridge for migrant and diaspora artists in Copenhagen. A fragile crossing, built from conversations and necessity.
From 2018 to 2023, this work took the form of festivals. Gatherings became temporary shelters: performances, screenings, voices stitched across Copenhagen and Venice. During these years, I also began a research into Southeast Asian diaspora artists living in the Nordic countries—mapping lives and practices scattered between climates and languages. The Pavilion was already forming, even if it did not yet recognize itself as such.
Venice gave the Pavilion its name by refusing it. We were told that only nations could claim a “pavilion.” Stateless Mind claimed it anyway—for those who carry more than one place, or none at all. What appeared as exclusion became a gesture of self-determination.
In 2024, at Kapallorek Artspace in Malaysia, the Pavilion was formally activated. No longer only festival or refusal, it became an open-ended structure—sometimes installation, sometimes performance, sometimes just a table where strangers drink coffee while waiting for something to shift.
It continues as a living platform: unfinished, porous, and adaptable. A site for works, conversations, and interruptions that move between borders without settling.
Timeline (fragments)
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2008 — Jambatan collective founded in Copenhagen.
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2018–2023 — Stateless Mind Festivals in Copenhagen and Venice: performances, screenings, dialogues. Research into Southeast Asian diaspora artists living in the Nordic countries.
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2023 — Venice restriction → Stateless Pavilion declaration.
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2024 — Activation at Kapallorek Artspace, Malaysia.
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2025 — Planned activation: Emergency Room, National Art Gallery Malaysia.
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2026 — Planned activation: Museo delle Mura, Rome.
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2027+ — Pavilion continues as a living, unfinished platform.