About

MILAAP
Founded 2023
About MILAAP
MILAAP is an independent and non-profit exhibition platform under Khurram Jamil's The Jamil Collection. Adamantly insistent on the notion that global spheres of culture are more similar than distinct, the collection puts together artists with ties to the Global South and North, searching for commonalities and meeting points rather than enforcing separation. Situated in a repurposed garage in the garden of the Jamil family home just north of Copenhagen, the activities of MILAAP emerge from a constant interplay with the art collection of its owner.
The collection’s growing inventory ranges from medieval Islamic manuscripts to on-site installations by contemporary artists, with the exhibitions found in MILAAP both showcasing selections of the collection’s works or otherwise presenting the artists and themes found in the collection in new constellations.
MILAAP takes its name from a 1968 sculpture by the Karachi-born, London-based artist Rasheed Araeen, the centerpiece of the collection and one of the only permanent works exhibited in the space – a work that meditates on the notion of meetings, encounters and dialogue, and what one might think of as a sculptural manifesto of the collection and its spirit. Asides from Araeen’s sculpture, MILAAP features two permanent installations on its outside: a yellow edition of Jeppe Hein’s Modified Street Lights, and a sprawling swing construction from SUPERFLEX’s One Two Three Swing! that continues into the exhibition

KHURRAM JAMIL

Khurram Jamil (*1976, DK) is a trained medical doctor and IT entrepreneur. A former resident of Boston and New York from 2014 to 2020, he now lives north of Copenhagen with his wife Pernille and their two children. Khurram Jamil is a co-founder of the education technology company Area9 Lyceum, where he focuses on regional expansions and partnerships with his over 20 years of entrepreneurial experience.
A dedicated cultural bridge builder, he is involved with various cultural and arts
organizations that support the establishment of creative and reflective societies. Khurram
is a board member at the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston
Public Library - a center that develops programs to inspire curiosity and learning among
people of all ages by using cartographic materials to illuminate history, geography, world
cultures, science, and contemporary issues. He is a former member of the Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum’s Middle Eastern Art Circle and is currently a board member of
American Friends of SMK - The National Gallery of Denmark. He has also served on the
Education Council of the Center for Global Education (CGE) at Asia Society in New York. Over the years, the Jamil Collection has donated works or funds to, among others, the AKG Art Museum in Buffalo, NY; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, NY; The Danish National Gallery in Copenhagen, Denmark; ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art in Ishøj, Denmark; and the Nicolas Sursock Museum in Beirut, Lebanon.
The collection started slowly in 2008, with a focus on Nordic contemporary artists, SUPERFLEX in particular. Over the previous decade it has broadened to include mainly women artists
from the Global South, in particular the Middle East. The collection now spans a wide range of periods, media, and cultural milieu, from medieval Islamic manuscripts to modernist icons and
global contemporary art.
More on Khurram and The Jamil Collection:
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How to Collect: Julie Quottrup Silbermann, Khurram Jamil, Saskia Neuman & Therese Möllenhoff
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Art as Your Future Business Tool
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Interview by Poul Arnedal (in Danish)
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Danish Originals S4E10: Khurram Jamil