Talks

Botaniske havers involvering i den koloniale handel med planter forårsagede vidtrækkende konsekvenser for lokalsamfund og økosystemer verden over. På trods af dette bærer formidlingen af denne del af havernes og planternes historie ikke præg af den samme kritiske stillingtagen, som den, mange etnografiske museer de seneste år er begyndt at præsentere for deres besøgende. I dette foredrag, baseret på antropologisk feltarbejde i og omkring de botaniske haver i Oxford, Kew og the Huntington i det sydlige Californien, demonstrerer jeg, hvordan den koloniale videnskabelige praksis fortsat udføres igennem navngivning af planter, samt hvordan plantesamlingers koloniale ophav kun overfladisk præsenteres for havernes besøgende. Foredraget præsenterer desuden resultater fra mit seneste forskningsprojekt på Glyptoteket i København, hvis centralt placerede Vinterhave ligeledes rummer en plantesamling med dybe koloniale rødder.

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Photo of the Botanical Gardens of the Huntington by V. Nielsen (2024).

At the annual meeting for members of the Young Academy of Denmark and the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Vibe Nielsen will present her research on the colonial legacies of plants. Her talk will be based on her fieldwork in the  botanical gardens of Oxford, Kew and the Huntington in Southern California, as well as on her most recent research on the plant collections of the Winter Garden within the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen.

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Photo of the Amazonian Water Lilies in the Oxford Botanic Garden by V. Nielsen (2025).

Alumni of Linacre College, University of Oxford, who are based in Denmark and the surrounding region are gathering at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in the city centre of Copenhagen for a special event organised by Linacre Research Fellow, Dr Vibe Nielsen. The event includes a guided tour of the museum, during which Dr Nielsen and Linacre alumna Dr Tuuli Kasso will present their research on the collections of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek.

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Photo of the Winter Garden of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek by V. Nielsen (2025).

International conference about performing race and racialisation at European courts c. 1500–1700. The central role of performance in the development and practice of racial categorisation and discrimination in Early Modern Europe has found much needed attention in recent scholarship. Within this larger framework, the two-day international conference organised by Emil Elg and Konrad Krčal is dedicated to the 'race-making' practiced as part of court spectacles and publicly organised festivities as it had profound impact on the dissemination of racist ideas and stereotypes in Europe. On the first day of the conference, Vibe Nielsen will chair Session I on the Strategies and Technologies of Race-making.

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Illustration by Henri de Gissey (1621-1673) of Louis XIV (1638-1715) dressed as Apollo the Sun King, dancing Le Ballet de la Nuit, choreographed in 1653. Reproduced via Wikimedia Commons. 

The Young Academy of Denmark invites PhD students and newly appointed postdocs to a day dedicated to celebrating life as an academic. Researchers from the Young Academy will share their experiences and present their contributions from the anthology Veje ind i akademia - en antologi fra Det Unge Akademi, which will be published this summer.

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Photo of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters by V. Nielsen (2025).

Plantesamlingen i centrum af Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek er mere end et smukt hvilested – den er en iscenesat fortælling om kunst, musik og globale forbindelser. Da museet fejrede sin udvidelse og fik sin kuppel i 1906, blev værker af blandt andre Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) og Niels W. Gade (1817-1890) opført som en del af en nøje kurateret helhed, hvor musik, skulpturer og planter spillede sammen. I anledning af Vinterhavens snarlige fødselsdag præsenterer Vibe Nielsen sin seneste forskning i en særomvisning om museets internationale inspirationskilder og planternes kulturhistorie. Kom med og hør, hvordan palmer, partiturer og arkitektur tilsammen fortæller historien om Glyptoteket som både et europæisk og globalt kulturprojekt! 

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Photo of the Winter Garden of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek around the time of its opening in 1906.

Dobbeltforelæsning med omvisninger i Glyptotekets Vinterhave og Botanisk Haves Palmehus, hvor tankerne bag de to prestigeprojekter udfoldes og sættes i samfundsmæssig og kulturpolitisk kontekst. 

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Photo of the Winter Garden of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek by V. Nielsen (2025).

Forelæsning om, hvordan samtidskunst fra Sydafrika fremstilles, samt hvilken betydning disse fremstillinger har for sydafrikanske kunstneres virke, i et museumslandskab, der fortsat påvirkes af kolonitidens verdenssyn.

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Photo by V. Nielsen (2017) of More Sweetly Play the Dance video installation by W. Kentridge (2017) exhibited at the Zeitz MOCAA.

Dobbeltforelæsning i samtale med Nationalmuseets forskningschef Christian Sune Pedersen (16.03) og samlingsmedarbejder Jens Soelberg fra Statens Naturhistoriske Museum (23.03).   

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Photo by J. Lee (2018) reproduced in agreement with the National Museum of Denmark (ES-376083).

​Double lecture celebrating the paperback launch of the Global Art in Local Art Worlds: Changing Hierarchies of Value anthology edited O. Salemink, A.S. Corrêa, J. Sejrup and V. Nielsen, which was published by Routledge in 2023. Prof. Ilana Seltzer Goldsteing from the Federal University of São Paulo will present her chapter on Representations of Indigenous Peoples in Brazilian Art, while Vibe Nielsen will present her chapter on the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa.

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Photo from the opening of the Zeitz MOCAA by V. Nielsen (2017).

Særomvisning i anledning af særudstillingen A Sounding of the Earth, der præsenterer værker af den kuwaitisk-puertoricanske samtidskunstner Alia Farid og udfolder tankerne bag Glyptotekets Vinterhave i en samfundsmæssig og kulturpolitisk kontekst.

I anledning af Glyptotekets Biblioteks 100 års fødselsdag, præsenterer Vibe Nielsen, hvordan en helt særlig fotografisk samling i Glyptotekets arkiver var toneangivende i hendes forskning i Carl Jacobsens internationale inspirationskilder. 

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Photo by V. Nielsen (2026) of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek seen from Tietgensgade.

Opening talk at the conference Collections – Provenance – Cultural Heritage presenting research conducted in botanical gardens and plant collections in Copenhagen, Los Angeles, Kew and Oxford. The presentation provides examples from the journal articles Public Presentations of Plants: Colonial Legacies and Indigenous Perspectives in the Botanical Gardens of The Huntington (2025), published in Museum Anthropology vol. 48, issue 2: 1-13 and The Colonial Roots of Botany: Legacies of Empire in the Botanic Gardens of Oxford and Kew (2023), published in Museum Management and Curatorship vol. 38, issue 6: 696-712.​

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Photo of the Oxford Botanic Garden by V. Nielsen (2024).

Særomvisning for Videnskabernes Selskabs sekretariat, baseret på Vibe Nielsens seneste forskning i tankerne bag Glyptotekets Vinterhave, hvis plantesamling sættes i samfundsmæssig og kulturpolitisk kontekst. Omvisningen finder sted i anledning af særudstillingen A Sounding of the Earth, der præsenterer værker af den kuwaitisk-puertoricanske samtidskunstner Alia Farid.

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Photo of the Winter Garden of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek by V. Nielsen (2025).

Særomvisning for Det Unge Akademis medlemmer, baseret på Vibe Nielsens seneste forskning i tankerne bag Glyptotekets Vinterhave, hvis plantesamling sættes i samfundsmæssig og kulturpolitisk kontekst. Omvisningen finder sted i anledning af særudstillingen A Sounding of the Earth, der præsenterer værker af den kuwaitisk-puertoricanske samtidskunstner Alia Farid.

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Photo of presentation in the library of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek by A. Simonsen (2025).

Paper presentation at the Plant Fever conference at the Natural History Museum Denmark, demonstrating the international influences of and ideas behind the Winter Garden of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek and the Palm House of the Botanic Garden in Copenhagen. 

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Photo of the Winter Garden in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek as it looked around the time of its opening in 1906.

Lecture, chaired by Linacre Fellow Dr. Vibe Nielsen at Linacre College, University of Oxford, in which Michelle Charters OBE, director of the International Slavery Museum Liverpool, presents the journey, the progress and the plans ahead for the museum.

Talk held as part of the Linacre Seminar Series at the University of Oxford, presenting the international influences of andideas behind the Winter Garden of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek and the Palm House of the Botanic Garden in Copenhagen. 

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Photo of the Water Mother (1920) by K. Nielsen in the Winter Garden in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek by V. Nielsen (2025).

I anledningen af særudstillingen Plantefeber - Verden i vindueskarmen byder Ordrupgaard velkommen til en ganske særlig aften, hvor viden om planter er i centrum. Aftenen indledes med performancen X is a Tree af kunstner Lilibeth Cuenca i Ordrupgaards park, hvorefter museet inviterer indenfor til en samtalesalon i museets café.

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Til samtalesalonen har Ordrupgaard sammensat en gruppe af eksperter med hvert deres perspektiv på planterne:

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• Antropolog og Postdoc, Vibe Nielsen, kaster i sin forskning lys på den kolonialistiske indsamling at både kunst og natur og vil fortælle om sammenhængen mellem palmer og prestige.

• Biolog, Anders Sanchez Barfoed, er ekspert på palmernes naturlige egenskaber og hvad der sker, når planterne rejser verden rundt.

• Museumsinspektør, Rikke Zinck Jensen, vil med afsæt i Ordrupgaards egen plantehistorie fortælle om stueplantens helt særlige, men slet skjulte rolle i kunsthistorien og om alt det planterne tilføjer til værkerne i udstillingen.

Samtalen modereres af lektor ved Aarhus Universitet, Anette Vandsø, der også står i spidsen for forskningsprojektet Skjulte Plantehistorier, der ligger til grund for udstillingen.​

Through two keynote lectures and a series of 12 shorter paper presentations, by researchers invited through an open call, the Collecting and Classifying conference brought together international scholars and museum practitioners from various interdisciplinary backgrounds, to discuss how collection and classification practices of the late-nineteenth century shaped the modern world and continues to influence contemporary museum practices. The conference convened international scholars and museum practitioners, who through presentations of their latest research and a series of thought-provoking panel discussions, developed their ideas about a historical period characterised by powerful industrialists, who became influential art collectors and museum founders.

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Covering research on the establishment and dissemination of both art historical, ethnographic and botanical collections, which were founded in an era heavily influenced by European colonialism, the Collecting and Classifying conference unfolded new perspectives on the development of collections of the late-nineteenth century.

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A selection of the papers presented at the conference, organised in collaboration between Vibe Nielsen and Kristine Dyrmann (Aarhus University) at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek and the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters, is in the process of being turned into an anthology edited by Vibe Nielsen and Lena Vosding (Academy of Arts and Science of Lower Saxony).

Presentation for members of l'Association Internationale Bibliophilie, based on catalogues and letters related to the British influences on the establishment of the art collection of Carl Jacobsen.

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Photo of the Sculpture Hall at Chatsworth House by V. Nielsen (2025).

Guided tour the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek together with Christine Horwitz Tommerup, for colleagues from the Natural History Museum of Denmark.

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Photo of the Winter Garden at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek by V. Nielsen (2025).

Talk at the "Image and Object" History of Art Study Day convened by Prof. Geraldine Johnson. Under the headline Reproducing the Tropics in the Winter Garden of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, findings from the research project Passion or Politics? The Art Collection of Carl Jacobsen in a Socioeconomic and Cultural-Political Context 1878-1914 was presented in dialogue with colleagues from the Department of the History of Art at the University of Oxford.

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Photo of the Winter Garden at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek by V. Nielsen (2025).

Guided tour of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek for the IT University of Copenhagen, presenting findings from the research project Passion or Politics? The Art Collection of Carl Jacobsen in a Socioeconomic and Cultural-Political Context 1878-1914.

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Photo of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek from the early twentieth century.

In Trinity Term 2025, Linacre Fellows Ashley Coutu, Tea Ghigo and Vibe Nielsen led the Linacre Lecture Series Communicating Culture: New Horizons for Museums at Linacre College, University of Oxford. Through six in-person and live-streamed events, the Linacre Lecture Series delved into the dynamics of cultural communication and explored the unprecedented challenges and opportunities facing art, archaeology and anthropology in a rapidly changing world. The series consisted of four lectures, a roundtable discussion with representatives of the Gardens, Libraries and Museums of the University of Oxford, as well as a conversation between Prof Wayne Modest, Director of the Wereldmuseum Amsterdam, Leiden and Rotterdam, and Prof Laura Van Broekhoven, Director of the Pitt Rivers Museum, chaired by Vibe Nielsen, on the future of ethnographic collections. 

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Photo by F. Cooper (2025) of Laura Van Broekhoven, Vibe Nielsen and Wayne Modest at Linacre College.

Guided tour for the Linacre Humanities Network at the Oxford Botanic Garden, University of Oxford, presenting the findings of the journal article The Colonial Roots of Botany: Legacies of Empire in the Botanic Gardens of Oxford and Kew (2023), published in Museum Management and Curatorship vol. 38, issue 6: 696-712.​

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Photo by V. Nielsen (2024) of the Oxford Botanic Garden.

Lecture at the Department of the History of Art at the University of Oxford, presenting findings from

the research project Passion or Politics? The Art Collection of Carl Jacobsen in a Socioeconomic and Cultural-Political Context 1878-1914.

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Drawing of the Winter Garden in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek by V. Dahlerup (1903).

Lecture based on anthropological fieldwork conducted in museums and art galleries in South Africa, as part of the research behind the PhD thesis Demanding Recognition: Curatorial Challenges in the Exhibition of Art From South Africa (Nielsen 2019).

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Photo of the Ditaola series by M. Modisakeng (2014) on display at the Zeitz MOCAA by V. Nielsen (2017).

Guided tour for PASS - Centre for Practice-based Art Studies, University of Copenhagen, at the Wereldmuseum and Hortus Botanicus, Leiden, presenting research on decolonial curatorial practices in ethnographic museums and botanical gardens, conducted as part of the research project Decolonising Museums - Changing Curatorial Practices at the Pitt Rivers and Quai Branly hosted by the Pitt Rivers Museum and Linacre College at the University of Oxford.

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Photo by V. Nielsen (2016) from the Wereldmuseum Leiden.

Paper presentation at the Annual Conference of the Association for Art History at the University of York, demonstrating how the initiatives to create palm houses in Copenhagen in the late-nineteenth century can be seen as examples of how private benefactors self-positioned themselves in a world characterised by imperial exploitation and representations of Europe as the only true civilisation.

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Photo of the Winter Garden in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (1907).

Dobbeltforelæsning med omvisninger i Glyptotekets Vinterhave og Botanisk Haves Palmehus, hvor tankerne bag de to prestigeprojekter udfoldes og sættes i samfundsmæssig og kulturpolitisk kontekst. ​

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Photo by L. Hemmingsen (2025).

Art Hour Foredrag på ARoS, arrangeret i anledning af særudstillingen Igshaan Adams: Weerhoud, i hvilket resultater fra Vibe Nielsens antropologiske feltarbejde på Sydafrikas kunstgallerier og museer, foretaget i forbindelse med ph.d. afhandlingen Demanding Recognition: Curatorial Challenges in the Exhibition of Art from South Africa (2019) præsenteres.

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Photo of the Zeitz MOCAA by V. Nielsen (2018).

Lecture at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies at the University of Copenhagen for colleagues in the research cluster Global Entanglements, presenting findings from the research project Passion or Politics? The Art Collection of Carl Jacobsen in a Socioeconomic and Cultural-Political Context 1878-1914.

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Photo of the Winter Garden at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek by V. Nielsen (2025).

Lecture at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies at the University of Copenhagen, based on anthropological fieldwork conducted in museums and art galleries in South Africa, as part of the research behind the PhD thesis Demanding Recognition: Curatorial Challenges in the Exhibition of Art From South Africa (2019).

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Photo from the opening of the Zeitz MOCAA by V. Nielsen (2017).

Mød Eksperten-foredrag på Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, baseret på Vibe Nielsens seneste forskning i tankerne bag Glyptotekets Vinterhave, hvis plantesamling sættes i samfundsmæssig og kulturpolitisk kontekst.

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Photo of the Winter Garden in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek by V. Nielsen (2021).

Research Seminar at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, presenting findings from the research project Passion or Politics? The Art Collection of Carl Jacobsen in a Socioeconomic and Cultural-Political Context 1878-1914.

Drawing of the Palm House in the Botanical Garden of Copenhagen (Jacobsen og Rothe 1879).

Talk at Les collections vivantes au prisme des sciences humaines et sociales seminar presenting research conducted in botanical gardens and plant collections in Copenhagen and Los Angeles, as well as the key findings of the journal article The Colonial Roots of Botany: Legacies of Empire in the Botanic Gardens of Oxford and Kew (2023), published in Museum Management and Curatorship vol. 38, issue 6: 696-712.​

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Photo of the Huntington Botanical Gardens by V. Nielsen (2024).

Talk at the internal seminar 'The colonial roots of house plants' in the Hidden Plant Stories network, presenting the findings of the journal article The Colonial Roots of Botany: Legacies of Empire in the Botanic Gardens of Oxford and Kew (2023), published in Museum Management and Curatorship vol. 38, issue 6: 696-712.​

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Photo of the Danny Gate (1632-33) in the Oxford Botanic Garden by V. Nielsen (2024).

Paper at the Museum Why? Practice, Agency and Knowledge in the Art Museum conference, co-organised by PASS - Center for Practice-based Art Studies and the Nordic museum network Museum Why?, demonstrating how the exhibition of art at the Iziko South African National Gallery was discussed and redefined in response to demands for equal access and more diverse representation. The paper analyses the critique of the three white curators behind the Our Lady-exhibition (2016), expressed by a group of South African contemporary artists, as well as members from the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce, who challenged the legitimacy of the curators to represent South Africa's diversity of voices, protested against the treatment of victims of gender-specific violence, and criticised the continued exclusion of subaltern parts of the population. Based on anthropological fieldwork carried out in and around the gallery from 2016-18, in relation to my PhD thesis Demanding Recognition: Curatorial Challenges in the Exhibition of Art from South Africa (2019), the paper presents the different positions expressed in the public debate surrounding the exhibition and shows that the museum space continuous to reinforce for some the feeling of belonging and for others the feeling of exclusion: the art gallery remains a place, where it is easier for white, well-educated voices to speak and be heard. However, the protests against the National Gallery in Cape Town challenged and created a public debate that made the institution recognise its privileged position in society and made it incorporate a more diverse plurality of voices.

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Photo of the Iziko SANG by V. Nielsen (2016).

How are colonial legacies dealt with in museums and botanic gardens? With examples from anthropological fieldwork conducted in museums and botanical gardens in Oxford, London and Los Angeles, this double lecture addresses some of the dilemmas discussed internationally within the museum world and its associated research environments.

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Photo of the Palm House in Kew Gardens by V. Nielsen (2023).

Panel discussion and artist performance fostering a visual and conceptual dialogue on ethnobotany across diverse cultural landscapes. Ethno-Botanic Resonance, organised by CREATE, the Research Centre for Creative Arts, Cultures and Engagement at the School of Art, Architecture and Design at the London Metropolitan University, in partnership with the Liliesleaf Trust UK and PF25 cultural projects, and in collaboration with the Chelsea Physic Garden.

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Photo of the Palm House in Kew Gardens by V. Nielsen (2023).

Talk presenting findings from the journal article The Colonial Roots of Botany: Legacies of Empire in the Botanic Gardens of Oxford and Kew (2023), published in Museum Management and Curatorship vol. 38, issue 6: 696-712.​

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Photo by V. Nielsen (2023) of the Danny Gate (1632-33) and Magdalen Tower (1509) seen from the Oxford Botanic Garden.

Presentation, held as part of the Linacre Seminar Series at the University of Oxford, presenting the findings of the chapter ‘Diversifying Public Commemorations in Cape Town and Copenhagen’ published in the French anthology De-Commemoration: Removing Statues and Renaming Places (2023) ed. by S. Gensburger and J. Wüstenberg, Berghahn Books.

Talk in the lecture series Kunstens Globale Kredsløb based on research conducted on curatorial challenges in the exhibition of art from South Africa, published in the Routledge-anthology Global Art in Local Art Worlds: Changing Hierarchies of Value (2023) edited by O. Salemink, A.S. Corrêa, J. Sejrup and V. Nielsen and the journal article Kunstbegrebets Koloniale Klassifikationer til Forhandling på Museer i Sydafrika (Nielsen 2021).

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Photo from the opening of the Zeitz MOCAA by V. Nielsen (2017).

Talk presenting the findings of the chapter ‘Ajouter et soustraire : décoloniser les espaces urbains au Cap et à Copenhague’ published in the anthology Dé-commémoration : Quand le monde déboulonne les statues et renomme des rues (2023) edited by S. Gensburger and J. Wüstenberg, Éditions Fayard.

Talk presenting the findings of the chapter about the Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town at the book launch of the anthology Global Art in Local Art Worlds: Changing Hierarchies of Value (2023) edited by O. Salemink, A.S. Corrêa, J. Sejrup and V. Nielsen, Routledge.

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Photo from the opening of the Zeitz MOCAA by V. Nielsen (2017).

Talk at the PRM Research Seminar presenting the postdoctoral research on changing curatorial practices conducted at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford and Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, as well as findings from the doctoral research on curatorial challenges in the exhibition of art from South Africa, published in the Rutledge-anthology Global Art in Local Art Worlds: Changing Hierarchies of Value (2023) edited by O. Salemink, A.S. Corrêa, J. Sejrup and V. Nielsen.

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Photo of wooden figures from Nigeria on display in the Pitt Rivers Museum by V. Nielsen (2021).

Talk presenting the findings of the chapter about the Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town at the book launch of the anthology Global Art in Local Art Worlds: Changing Hierarchies of Value (2023) edited by O. Salemink, A.S. Corrêa, J. Sejrup and V. Nielsen, Routledge.

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Photo from the opening of the Zeitz MOCAA by V. Nielsen (2017).

Presentation, held as part of the Linacre Seminar Series at the University of Oxford, presenting the postdoctoral research on changing curatorial practices conducted at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford and Musée du Quai Branly in Paris.

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Photo of wooden mask from Nigeria on display at Musée du Quai Branly by V. Nielsen (2022).

Online talk at the NordGlob Seminar Series presenting the postdoctoral research on changing curatorial practices conducted at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford and Musée du Quai Branly in Paris.

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Photo of figure from reliquary ensemble collected in northern Congo on display at Musée du Quai Branly by V. Nielsen (2021).

Panel debate at the Golden Days Festival in Copenhagen presenting findings from the doctoral research on curatorial challenges in the exhibition of art from South Africa, published in the Rutledge-anthology Global Art in Local Art Worlds: Changing Hierarchies of Value (2023) edited by O. Salemink, A.S. Corrêa, J. Sejrup and V. Nielsen.

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Photo of the Ditaola series by M. Modisakeng (2014) on display at the Zeitz MOCAA by V. Nielsen (2017).

Online talk in the Department of Continued Education course Decolonisation at the Pitt Rivers Museum presenting the postdoctoral research on changing curatorial practices conducted at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford and Musée du Quai Branly in Paris.

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Photo of wooden mask from Côte d'Ivoire on display at Musée du Quai Branly by V. Nielsen (2023).