In 2009, Szefer Karlsen, together with Arne Skaug Olsen and Morten Kvamme, edited the book Lokalisert/Localised. Commissioned for the Bergen Biennial Conference, it created a platform for the local art scene in Bergen to voice their opinions on the plans for a biennial launched by City of Bergen, which resulted in Bergen Assembly.

About her appointment Szefer Karlsen says that: “Since the initial idea of a biennial in Bergen, I have been an active participant in the debate about that which became Bergen Assembly. I look much forward to contributing to this internationally focused and growing institution, which seriously consider curatorial practice, and which is actively seeking new models for an institutional form building on the last decades of globalisation with all the ethical and practical challenges that this implies.”

Szefer Karlsen has curated several biennials, like LIAF 2013, and was a contributor to World Biennial Forum #2 in São Paulo, 2014. Since 2016 she has been Associate Professor Curatorial Practice at the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen (UiB). She will continue her work at UiB as Associate Professor.