huntington81@gmail.com

In my latest exhibition titled “Report from the Twilight Bureaucracy” I am presenting new video, photo and sculptural works.

The Twilight Bureaucracy is a collection of events, objects and experimental strategies that explore the undercurrents of administration and the alternative sides of bureaucracy. The project deals with public employees’ struggle with various administrative systems and presents new safety procedures to combat feelings of powerlessness and ethical stress. The Twilight Bureaucracy proposes a counter-movement – a community of acting public officials who invents various methods and techniques to escape frustration, create sanctuaries, and pour warmth into the spaces in between. The works in the exhibition are small-scale, but simultaneously powerful, ceremonial acts presented in an educational format.

The exhibition is open 29 Sep – 29 Oct at Galleri Box in Gothenburg
Opening on Friday 29 Sep at 17-20.

Image up top: Anna Karin, Personnel Manager, University of Gothenburg
Image below: Installation view at Galleri Box, Photo: Hendrik Zeitler

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Information about the exhibition

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The Twilight Bureaucracy is a series of instructional videos where you can follow me into the alternative sides of administration.

In this channel, we will look into the history of public management, and what kind of objects and techniques have been used by office workers of the past. We will look into present-day administration, how it is performed and executed, and how officials and clerks use loopholes in the system to overcome frustration and alienation. We will look into the future and introduce new rituals and strategies that can be applied by employees of different societal institutions and citizens encountering or interacting with these institutions.

You are welcome to subscribe to the Youtube channel @TwilightBureaucracy

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The New New Gothenburg Spirit (Den nya nya Göteborgsandan) is a performance work that is based on Göteborg Konsthalls own administrative everyday routines, and highlights the systems and phenomena that pervade a completely ordinary working day in the service of the municipal residents. Small-scale examples from a silent tug-of-war are presented: a sometimes painful wrestling match between judgment and structure that takes place behind the facades of all municipal institutions around in the city districts. These acrobatic maneuvers are intertwined with the city’s tunnel vision on economic growth and the contemporary manic acceleration rate that perforates us citizens on all levels.

In the performance, alternative methods are sought out, new ceremonial tactics expand from the basements of administration, strange measures are developed and leads up to a gloomy ritual – a joint exorcism of both new and old ghosts of thought.

The performance was 25 minutes long, and here you can see the last three minutes, the ceremonial finale.

Ten employees from the City of Gothenburg participated in the ritual: Matias, Henrik, Mikael, Kajsa, Petra, Jenny, Katarina, Fredrik, Niina and Linda. They where dressed in ceremonial outfits made out of discarded paper and cardboard: leftovers from municipal operations. The participants uphold different positions and are working for various departments of the municipality.

The performance took place to the tunes of Arvsmassan.

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More about the event at the website of Göteborg Konsthall

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As part of Art Week Copenhagen 2023, I am participating in Black Metal Art bar, produced by Live Art Denmark, held at Friisland in Copenhagen. Three separate performance occasions with a new version of The Dark Administrator, and then there is an exhibition up until 30th of June.

More information:

Black metal meets public administration meets German beer!

John Huntington (SE) is accompanied by the apocalyptic sounds by Dödsvarg (SE) in THE DARK ADMINISTRATOR, a performance which demonstrates the darkest rituals of the public administration of the welfare state!

Black’n’Grove band ILLA and Claus Haxholm’s Black Metal project Grev Trold play live outside FRIISLAND.

All events are free of charge.

Lots of cheap German beer!

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PROGRAM:

Saturday June 3rd 2023
18:00 The Dark Administrator (limited access)
19:00 ILLA
19:30 The Dark Administrator (limited access)
20:30 Grev Trold

Sunday June 4th 2023
19:00 The Dark Administrator (limited access)

Tickets for The Dark Administrator at https://www.cphstage.dk/shows/the-dark-administrator

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The first version of The Dark Administrator was coproduced together with Skogen in Gothenburg.

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This year’s conference will take place in the five towns of Jönköping, Tranås, Boxholm, Mjölby och Linköping 4-6 May. There are three intensive program items on the agenda, where irrational support structures and an alternative set of measures are being developed.

Welcome to take part in the conference’s activities on Kanslibyråns Instagram account. The conference applies a variable schedule and the program items will be announced gradually. Stay updated on Thursday – Saturday to experience the gathering digitally.

Image: Climb a mountain in shirt and tie (2022)

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Instagram: @kanslibyran

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Kanslibyrån is performing the work “The Phantom Administration – Proposal No. 147: An Inner Journey” at 13festivalen on January 6th 2023. The work is a guided meditation with Kanslibyrån. Participants are taken on a mental journey among the details of everyday life, where our immediate environments are charged with warmth and the workplace becomes a path to enlightenment. The work is in swedish, 20 minutes long and for a maximum of 20 participants.

13festivalen is taking place on Konstepidemin in Gothenburg 5-7 January 2023.

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Here you can read the whole program for the festival

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Frihetsförmedlingens local office at Havremagasinet in Boden is activated by the agencys initators Lars Noväng and John Huntington on 11-12 november 2022.

On Friday 11 November we are hosting the workshop “Together we can quit” where we follow a carefully structured and playful method where we develop new methods to stop everything from small-scale everyday habits to institutionalized behavioral patterns, with the overall goal to rid ourselves of constant employment, activity and consumption.

Saturday, 12 November 12.00-15.00 all freedom seekers are welcome to drop by to get a freedom permit issued, evaluate their freedom needs and freedom opportunities, or just meet Frihetsförmedlingens initators to discuss.

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Read more about the office in Boden

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Kanslibyråns exhibition titled “The Third Cerebral Hemisphere” is opening on Galleri 54 in Gothenburg Friday 4 November 2022 at 18.00-21.00

For almost fifteen years, Kanslibyrån (The Secretariat Bureau) has waged a small-scale and persistent struggle in everyday life where society’s ideals of rationality, obedience and efficiency are questioned on both a public and personal level.

“We live in a fragmented and polarized reality where cold and seemingly rational mechanisms such as market forces, bureaucratic processes and social hierarchies shape our surroundings, at the same time as emotion, irrationality and imagination are twisted beyond recognition in a medialized and digitalized reality full of post truths and outrage.”

Here, Kanslibyrån believes that it is important to carefully nurture the irrational and consciously embrace a curious and naive gaze on our surroundings. Everyday interventions, tentative gestures and micro-resistance become a form of mental long-distance training. Kanslibyrån’s organization and collection of various actions constitute a body of ritual protective measures against our current production-oriented and socially divisive paradigm.

At Galleri 54, Kanslibyrån exhibits a large selection of photographs documenting objects and actions as well as text based works. 

At 19.00 on the day of the opening, Kanslibyrån will read from its Program Statement that was published earlier this year. The reading is in Swedish.

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For more information see: Galleri 54

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