Dive into film and underground culture at Punk Symposium at ARoS

On Saturday 28 November, ARoS brings together researchers, artists and filmmakers for an international one-day symposium on underground culture, art and film. The symposium takes place in conjunction with the exhibition Unruly – The body in punk, on view to mark the 50th anniversary of punk’s breakthrough.

How have artists used film as a medium to challenge aesthetic norms and break with conventional narratives about the body and art?

The symposium, NOISE AND VISION: Punk Aesthetics, DIY Methods, and Underground Experiments in Films, explores these questions through talks, film screenings, performances and live experiments.

Punk’s DIY culture and the experimental visual language of film will take centre stage throughout the day, as students, emerging researchers and international keynote speakers present their research.

“The symposium explores how film is used to capture the lifestyles of underground scenes, from both an insider and outsider perspective, and from artistic as well as documentary viewpoints. I’m very much looking forward to welcoming so many wonderful colleagues from different countries to ARoS and spending the day here with them,” says Marie Arleth Skov, curator of the exhibition Unruly – The body in punk and the initiator and host of the symposium.

During the punk rebellion of the 1970s and 1980s, film was used to capture provocative performances, document life on the margins of society and experiment with new ways of working with sound, bodies and images.

The exhibition Unruly – The body in punk presents eight films from the period by, among others, Derek Jarman, Nina Sten-Knudsen and the duo Bühler & Hormel. The films are characterised by low budgets, grainy images and punk’s raw, authentic approach to filmmaking.

With the symposium, ARoS presents a research and public engagement initiative spanning the exhibition, catalogue, and symposium, exploring the relevance of punk today.

Practical Information

The symposium is held in English and takes place at ARoS from 9:30 am to 6:30 pm in the Auditorium on Level 3.

The symposium is free of charge, but registration is required. Register and view the full programme here:

28.11.2026 / NOISE & VISION symposium

The symposium is organised in collaboration with Aarhus University and the Punk Scholars Network and made possible with support from the New Carlsberg Foundation and the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

About Unruly – The body in punk

Unruly– The body in punk is curated by Marie Arleth Skov and is the result of her three-year postdoctoral research project, carried out in collaboration between ARoS and Aarhus University.

The exhibition is on view at ARoS until 13 December 2026 and has been made possible through generous support from the New Carlsberg Foundation, Grosserer L.F. Foghts Foundation and the Toyota Foundation.

Press photos can be downloaded via Dropbox and may be used freely with appropriate credit.

For further information, please contact:
ARoS Press and Communications
presse@aros.dk
+45 61904942