Kanslibyrån

  • The Phantom Administration: Modified pen

Kanslibyrån (≈ The Secretariat Bureau) is an activist group and artistic institution created together with artists Per-Arne Sträng.

Kanslibyrån is fighting a battle in everyday life since 2007, where rationality, obedience and effectiveness are questioned in both private and public spheres. The critique of established norms and customary conventions is central in the work of the bureau – trying to pinpoint situations where resistance is possible through performance works, ritualistic actions and sculptural proposals. Society is mainly built on rationality and obedience; and as a consequence Kanslibyrån is promoting irrationality and defiance as central concepts, claiming that all actions matter and all situations have a subversive and critical potential.

The collaboration have resulted in many different bodies of works where the most persevering project is The Archive of Actions, consisting of several hundreds of actions performed in everyday life settings.


For more information visit Kanslibyråns webpage


About

John Huntington is a Swedish artist working in a conceptual tradition, expressed through performative, sculptural, textual and immersive art projects. Educated at Konstfack in Stockholm and at the Art Academy in Umeå. Living and working in Gothenburg.


CV-english


E-mail: info@johnhuntington.se
Phone: +46704741380

Frihetsförmedlingen

  • Frihetskontor Varberg- Foto: Hendrik Zeitler

Frihetsförmedlingen (The Swedish Public Freedom Service), initiated in 2014 in collaboration with artist Lars Noväng, is a self-organized authority, think tank and work of art.

The Swedish Public Freedom Service provides an interactive internet platform as well as temporary offices, where ritualistic and bureaucratic behavior in pursuit of freedom can be performed. 

In this way the Freedom Service offers Swedish citizens a useful alternative to the mandatory search for non-existent or imaginary jobs on today’s shrinking labour market they otherwise are required to perform.

Besides supplying and mediating freedom, the Freedom Service runs a Research & Development Program and also has an obligation to influence the public opinion. 

From 2019 the Swedish Public Freedom Service also has the mandate to oversee and control the level of freedom in Swedish companies and organisations, as well as in public places. 


Link to frihetsformedlingen.se (In Swedish)


Alternative defense measures

The opening of Kanslibyråns solo exhibition on Alingsås konsthall is on Saturday 25 January 10.00-14.00. The show titled Alternativa försvarsåtgärder (Alternative defense measures) displays both new and older works – All centered on the small scale art-activism and enchantment of everyday life that Kanslibyrån have been working with the last twelve years.

Alingsås konsthall

The Ministry of Uncertainty

As a response to the workshop “Designing the Parallel Society” that Frihetsförmedlingen held in Minsk in June 2019, Elisabeth Kovtiak has written an article about the thoughts and ideas of the participating group and the founding of the new Ministry of Uncertainty in Belarus.

“The Ministry of Uncertainty is an alternative organization that replicates some technical characteristics of ministries. It will have a website, official agenda and visual identity just as any ministry. Why those? Basically, that is with what citizens can encounter once they are interested in a ministry’s activities. The real activities of ministries in Belarus are quite opaque: hidden behind the bureaucracy. Unlike the ‘real’ ministries, the Ministry of Uncertainty initiates and fosters public discussions that do not aim to come up with a certain solution. This alternative institution is both a criticism of the passivity of a bloated bureaucratic system and the unwillingness of public authorities to take responsibilities. Another function of the Ministry of Uncertainty is to create a meeting place for the citizens where they can discuss the facade stability and an uncertainty and anxiety that exist behind it. “

Participants in the worshop and creators of the Ministry of Uncertainty is Alina Dzeravianka, Elisabeth Kovtiak, Christin Wahlström Eriksson and Sophia Sadovskaya. The workshop was led by Lars Noväng and myself as part of the STATUS Project


Read the whole article: Designing the Parallel Society in Belarus: Adressing the dichotomy of stability and uncertainty by Elisabeth Kovtiak


Logo design by Valentine Duduk


Skymningskonst

On Friday, November 29 at 18:00, Skymningskonst (Twilight Art) will start at Gallery Cora Hillebrand, Fabriksgatan 48 in Gårda. During the evening, a total of eight experimental acts are given: presentations, performance, sound works and lectures. Together they form a poetic and metaphysical whole: an artistic diversity that is sometimes subtle and friendly but also brutal. Refreshments will be served, welcome!

Program:
18.00 – Christin Wahlström: “Att följa den gula tråden”
18.20 – David Price
18. 40 – Anne Marte Overaa & Anna Liljedal: “Pizza-connect”
19.20 – Simon Skuteli: “Den bartleboothska metoden”
19.40 – Kristoffer Svenberg: “I dare you to lick your screen”
20.00 – Sara Nielsen bonde: “Det platsspecifika verkets autonomi”20.40 – Mattias Helleberg: “Norske Høvdingers Samfund”
21.00 – Mikael Goralski: “Zbigniew Spengler, taskspelare”

Curated by Henrik Ekesiöö, Cora Hillebrand och John Huntington
Image from school book, scanned by Erik Betshammar

Read more about the project

With support from Göteborgs stad

New office at Ångpannegatan

The Swedish Public Freedom Service is opening a new temporary office, this time as part of the project Ångpannegatans processer on Backaplan in Gothenburg. The project is a collaboration between local artists, Statens Konstråd and Lundby stadsdelsförvaltning. Come visit us on Saturday 23 November and Mondag 25 November to meet your freedom counselor, get your freedom permit and create an emancipation plan for the coming year.  

Read more

Frihetens pris at Skogen

Frihetsförmedlingen is organizing the conference Frihetens pris (The price of Freedom) on Skogen in Gothenburg Saturday 9 nov 2019. We have a number of inspirational speekers: Stina Oscarson, Birger Schlaug, Cecilia Jonasson, Per Johansson and Sister Lena.

Read more on Frihetsförmedlingens site

Demonstration of new tools

Kanslibyrån will demonstrate new tools at Galleri Box in Gothenburg Saturday 24 Aug at 15.00. Kanslibyrån has been fighting against efficiency and productivity in the public arena for more than a decade. Now the bureau has developed a set of new tools, objects intended to help in a concrete way in the fight against rationalization and measurability. With a starting point in everyday issues around jobs, family, finances, relationships, attitudes, etc., the agency seeks to provide concrete support in how destructive norms and conventions can be counteracted.

Galleri Box