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Najaaraq Vestbirk (b. 1987) also known as Courtesy, is a Danish artist based between Copenhagen and Berlin. Her multidisciplinary practice began on the dancefloor, using it as a starting point to examine the organic relationships formed between strangers, investigating the ways people coalesce in these transcendent spaces and the intimate exchanges that occupy it. Spanning installation, composition, DJ sets, performance, photography and video, Vestbirk is highly interested in the liveness and interactive potential of performance, particularly in collective exchange and questioning ways in which the artist can absolve the line between artist and audience.
Vestbirk’s work is highly expansive and symbiotic, incorporating elements of sound to inform her visual practice, whilst simultaneously employing photography to form a conduit between her and the audience to challenge the presence of her performances.
Under the moniker Courtesy, Vestbirk has toured extensively as a DJ, having performed in distinguished venues and festivals around the world such as Berghain, Bassiani and Sónar by Night. She is also the founder and artistic director of Kulør, a record label and multidisciplinary artistic platform that since 2018 has produced records, books, exhibitions, and programming across the music and contemporary art worlds.
