huntington81@gmail.com

Kanslibyrån (The Secretariat Bureau) is participating in the project “Hela havet stormar” at Konstmuseet i Skövde. The bureau is opening up a temporary branch on site, and will produce an intense schedule during the week 2-6 February 2026. The schedule includes performances in public space, developed from the long-term project “The Archive of Actions”. Some performances are durational, and some are occupying a shorter moment in time.

During the week, the project: “Collection and Analysis of Good Sticks” will start, where the general audience is welcome to donate a favourite wooden stick to be evaluated and included in the project.

For a full downloadable pdf-schedule (in Swedish) click here.

---

Undercentralen (The Sub-Center) is an association of civil servants from different parts of the country. Since its inception in June 2024, the network’s participants have secretly made artistic interventions in their workplaces.

Now the first 18 months have been compiled in this 50-page publication (in Swedish)

More about Undercentralen:
The activities have been structured in the form of a digital exchange of letters where tasks have been sent out to the network’s participants at regular intervals. These tasks have then been carried out and in most cases documented.

The documentation received has been compiled as several PDF files that have been sent out to the participants. It is these PDFs that make up this publication. If you want to purchase a copy, please e-mail info@johnhuntington.se.

Active members of Undercentralen are (or have been): My, Jennie, Mia, Andreas, Maria, Bitr. kanlist, Ursula, Kundklubben, Marcus, Erik, Cathrin, Kassiopeia, Akira, Ida, Helia, Anna, Strapazia, Åsa, Glitterbok, Nora, Nicola, Marina, Morosof, Anna-Karin, Johan, Margritt, Cyxos, Liliana, Beppo, Patrik, Elin, Sten and Mattias.

The activities of the network is led by John Huntington

Undercentralen has been accompanied by the musician Jon Ekström who, in the various constellations Arvsmassan, Dödsvarg, Signalbolaget, Ekot and the Subcentralen, has composed music based on the network’s activities. These compositions can be found on streaming services under the title “Årsredovisning”

---

“Department of Unexpected Measures” (Avdelningen för oväntade åtgärder) was a network of employees at Mittuniversitetet who created small-scale artworks in their work environments. In practice, the activities were structured as a newsletter where participants were given a task each week for over a ten-week period.

To see the results of the project, see this PDF. (In Swedish)

The daily workday for researchers and teachers is largely characterized by administrative tasks performed in a digital environment. University employees share this situation with most employees of the public sector. The technological development of recent decades has the possibility for greater control and detailed management. This means that important core values ​​in various activities, values ​​that are based on judgment and ethical responsibility, risk ending up further down the priority list. The possibility for speed and constant communication offered by digitalization also risks making everyday work fragmented and unfocused.

In order to provide space for reflection, promote long-term thinking, counteract political control and handle the downsides of digitalization, the “Department for Unexpected Measures” was therefore initiated.

Overall, “The Department of Unexpected Measures” aimed to create space for the participants to find increased room for action in everyday work, process frustration with different administrative systems and control methods, and challenge their own and others’ ideas about how creativity can take place within professional practice. The project’s small-scale artworks found their way into the work environment and became a series of employee-produced public art in micro format.

“The Department of Unexpected Measures” was Clara, Christina, Sara, Anna, Karin, Maja, Janani, Leif, Kajsa, Katarina, Mikael, Eva, Lena, Caroline, Karin.

“The Department for Unexpected Measures” was a joint art project between Mittuniversitetets Forum for Digitalization (Fodi), Forum for Gender Research (FGF) and John Huntington.

Image: Assignment 7: Place yourself in a confined space at work / performed and photographed by Kajsa.

---

A mini performance festival at Skogen in Gothenburg 31 Oct – 1 Nov 2025, where the work “Övning i krympande för 20-40 personer” (Excercise in Shrinking or 20-40 people) will be performed.

Friday, 31 of October 18:00:
We shall never be strangers to each other by Mirja Timm
“Övning i krympande för 20-40 personer” av John Huntington & Sara Granér

Saturday 1 of November 18:00
XENO SARX by Last Oblivion
Object Agency – Are you ever disgusted by human breath? by Lisa Mårtensson

More information about the event and how to book a spot go to the Skogen website

The performance “Övning i krympande för 20-40 personer” is developed as part of RITE (rite.agency)

---

The exhibition “System Care” (Systemvård) comprises experimental strategies from the alternative aspects of bureaucracy and the undercurrents of administration. Here, society’s pain spots and logical fallacies are addressed, based on the daily work of office workers and civil servants. New rituals and protective measures are presented that constitute persistent attempts to ward off powerlessness and ethical stress.

The works in the exhibition constitute small-scale, yet powerful, ceremonial acts presented in an educational video format, but also contain ritual artifacts in the form of objects, images and photos.

The exhibition is opening on October 18th and is up until November 2nd

As a prequel there is a performative lecture on Friday the 17th of October titled “Making secret files and other powerful practices.” The performance is about bureaucracy, creativity and resistance. With the office workplace as a starting point, the work addresses contemporary people’s heavy addiction to systematizing everything in their environment. The event includes a short practical exercise, for which each participant is asked to bring a printed text-based document from their current workplace (There will be extra documents for those who have forgotten). The work contains music by Jon Ekström/Dödsvarg and is 60 minutes long.

---

More information about the exhibition space on the Ahlbergshallen website

---

A new exhibition titled “Bankväsen och andra Livsformer” (Banking Systems and Other Life Forms) is opening on Sep 12 (17.00 – 20.00) at Galleri Cora Hillebrand in Gothenburg.

In the show, several new works are exhibited, including the five sculptures crafted from engraved animal skulls, each bearing a title from a major Swedish bank. It is also a premiere of the new video work “The Art of Shrinking Correctly” developed as part of the research platform RITE.

The exhibition text is written by Oscar Svanelid, you can read it here

The show is up until 5th of October

---

More information: Galleri Cora Hillebrand

---

Undercentralen (The Sub-Center) is a secret association of about thirty civil servants from various parts of Sweden. For more than a year, the network has made artistic interventions in their workplaces. Small-scale creative acts of resistance have been carried out to process, for example, feelings of frustration and loss of meaning – in a way that is both playful and inclusive.

Undercentralen is populated by those who feel that something is missing on an existential level. The group presents low-intensity activities on-site at Swedish workplaces. Presenting a tug of war between freedom and structure, between personal judgment and regulations, and between emotions and logic. The tension between these poles is charged with energy, and concepts that at first glance can be seen as opposites are instead brought together; bureaucracy and art become synonyms, and new hybrid art forms emerge that find their way into offices, break rooms and corridors.

The activities have been structured as a form of digital correspondence with tasks and exercises. Now, the first year of the Undercentralen activities is presented in a stage performance at Skogen in Gothenburg 6-7 September. The audience is invited to an evening that moves between PowerPoint musical, multimedia learning opportunity, eclectic conference and alternative team building.

Performing participants from Undercentralen: Strapazia (State agency), Erik (Municipal Archives) Kassiopeia (Medium-sized municipality), Ursula (The Rosengård library) Kundklubben (State agency) and Liliana (Larger municipality)

The first year has been accompanied by musician Jon Ekström, who in the various constellations Arvsmassan, Dödsvarg, Signalbolaget, Ekot and Undercentralen has composed music based on the year’s activities: office-inspired pieces of music that range from electronic soundscapes to apocalyptic metal. Jon performs parts of the compositions during the evening.

Where: Skogen, Masthuggsterassen 3, Gothenburg
When: 6 Sep 18.00 and 7 Sep 15.00, 2025

The work is 75 minutes long and is performed in Swedish

Members of Undercentralen: My, Jennie, Mia, Andreas, Maria, Bitr. office, Ursula, Kundklubben, Marcus, Erik, Cathrin, Kassiopeia, Akira, Ida, Helia, Anna, Strapazia, Åsa, Glitterbok, Nora, Nicola, Marina, Anna-Karin, Johan, Cyxos, Liliana, Beppo, Patrik, Elin, Sten and Mattias

The Undercentralen activities are led by artist John Huntington

Image: Marcus, municipal administration / Andreas, performing arts institution / Mia, state agency

The event is produced with project support from the City of Gothenburg and Längmanska Kulturfonden.The title of the project was inspired by artist Lars Noväng.

---

Click here for more information and booking

---

Do you think that things easily grow too big? That different phenomena in your life consume too much time, energy and resources? That expansion and acceleration are concepts that are uncomfortable?

Then the “Exercise in Shrinking for 40-70 people” is something for you. This time it is performed during the annual SWAN (Swedish Artist Residency Network) gathering at Konstepidemin in Gothenburg, and is open to participants of the conference.

This exercise is an adaptation of the “Exercise in Shrinking for 7-10 people” that was performed at Skogen in March 2025, it is presented by Sara Granér and John Huntington and developed as part of RITE.

To read more about the exercise, content & development, see: Exercise in Shrinking for 7-10 people

---

Kanslibyrådagarna is a conference about irrationality and inefficiency that takes place every second year. In this year’s edition, Kanslibyrån and Konsthall 323 are collaborating to provide an exciting and intensive program, which includes twenty-five artistic actions carried out in public environments. This year’s conference is mobile and will take place in Karlstad, Kristinehamn, Karlskoga, Örebro and Arboga, with a finale in Stockholm!

The final event in Stockholm will take place on Sunday 29 June 16.00-17.00 at Slipvillan, where Kanslibyrån will present the results of the conference and talk about previous activities. Snacks and drinks will be served and you are welcome to hang out in the garden until 20.00

The rest of the conference applies a flexible schedule and a selection of documented program items will be published continuously on Kanslibyrån’s and Konsthall 323’s Instagram accounts.

Kanslibyrån is an activist group and artistic institution consisting of Per-Arne Sträng and John Huntington. The bureau is engaged in a struggle in everyday life where rationality, obedience and efficiency are questioned on both a public and personal level. The agency explores the irrational as an act of resistance, bureaucracy as aesthetics and everyday life as an artistic space. Kanslibyrån’s most extensive project, The Archive of Actions, is a series of works that today consists of 690 artistic actions carried out primarily in public space.

Instagram: @kanslibyrån
Website: kanslibyrån.se

Konsthall 323 is an art institution in a car run by artists Frida Krohn and Ylva Trapp. The agency was founded in 2010. Our most common parking lot is in the Stockholm area, but our views change. We show up where we are needed.

Instagram: @konsthall323
Website: konsthall323.se

Image: Action No. 646: Roll out a red carpet

---

A pedagogic and performative lecture about bureaucracy, creativity, and resistance. With the office as a starting point, the event explores the modern human tendency — or even addiction — to systematise everything around them. I will present examples from the long-term project The Twilight Bureaucracy — a collection of events, objects, and interventions that delve into the hidden layers of administration and the alternative realities of office life.

The session will introduce various ritualistic methods — small-scale, practical techniques that can be used in the workplace to combat feelings of powerlessness and frustration.

The event includes a short practical exercise. Each participant is asked to bring one printed, text-based document from their current workplace. Extra standardised papers will be provided for those who come empty-handed.

The event is part of the exhibition “The Bureaucrat Who Secretly Reads Poems” curated by Roberta Atraste as part of the Riga Photography Biennial—NEXT 2025

When: Thursday 29 May at 18.00
Where: Experimental Art Space “Pilot” of the Art Academy of Latvia, Vāgnera Street 3, Rīga.

---

‍More information about the event and how to sign up

---