Born 1943. Lives and works in Copenhagen.

Educated at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts 1975. Cand.phil 1977.

A series of exhibitions, events, installations, performances and mural work in Denmark and the rest of world since the mid-60s.

Visiting professor and lecturer at art academies in Scandinavia, the USA and the Middle East.

Scenographic work at a number of Danish theatres since 1967; established the Scenography Department at the Danish National Theatre School in 1985-1990.

Important co-operations in the 90s include concept and set design for Randi Patterson Company.

Curated Body as Membrane together with VALIE EXPORT at Kunsthallen Brandts Klædefabrik 1995

Justesen has received a series of grants, including the Anne Marie Telmanyi Award 1991; The Eckersberg Medal 1996; Life grants from The Danish Art Foundation 1998; The Carl Nielsen & Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Award 2000; The Anna Nordlander Award 2003;The Thorvalsen Medal 2005 and a ISCP residency, New York 2006.

Justesen has illustrated books, magazines, designed posters and a series of chasubles for Capernaum Church in Copenhagen. KORS DRAG was published 1999 at Brøndum.

Represented in private and public collections, including Statens Museum for Kunst; The Dep. of Prints and Drawings; Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Aalborg; the New Carlsberg Foundation; Køge Art Museum of Sketches; Museum of International Ceramic Art of Denmark; The Art Museum Brundlund Castle; Museum Anna Nordlander, Sweden.

Member of the Artist Society and the Academy of Fine Arts.

Member of the board of The Odin Theatre, Holstebro and Kaleidoskop, Copenhagen.

Kirsten Justesen's activities comprise a wide range of genres, from body art and performance art to sculptures and installation. Justesen was part of the avant-garde scene of the 1960s, where she became a pioneering figure within the three-dimensional modes of art that incorporate the artist's own body as artistic material. These experiments led her in the direction of the so-called feminist art which challenged traditional value systems during the 1970s. Her later works constitute broader investigations of relationships between body, space, and language.