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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 you are most welcome to a practical exercise in shrinking, taking place at Skogen in Gothenburg. As a participant, you will be guided through a small-scale ritual that does not require any prior knowledge.

The drive to constantly expand is deeply embedded in our culture, it is a form of fundamental edict that a positive movement forward always goes hand in hand with an increase in size. It is not only economies that need to grow, but cities and municipalities must become larger, reach and impact must increase, working hours and years must increase. While these larger movements are happening, we are also expected to grow as individuals.

Maybe we should therefore practice shrinking?

The event is in Swedish, free of charge, about 45 minutes long, and afterward soup is served.

Book at spot here

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RITE is a research platform that, in practice and theory, is dedicated to transition and sustainable social formation.

RITE is trying to respond to the societal transformation we are all now experiencing and the great transformation we have ahead of us, based on our conviction that this process involves very profound changes in our cultural fabric, our beliefs and social institutions.

RITE therefore approaches – in theory and practice – the underlying thought systems and invisible ritual behaviors that have governed our institutions and our social fabric through modernity: Thought models and practices that are also often the very root of the problems we are now trying to get the same institutions to solve.

This happens in interaction with what we call the ritual spaces of society: the space of learning, the space of law, the space of urban planning, the space of economics, the space of politics, etc. Spaces that are all interconnected, but at the same time also carry their own rites and stories. In our work, we seek out these different social spaces in order – together with those who work there – to uncover and make visible the underlying operating systems of the spaces and explore how these can be changed, opened up or put into play.

The Rite Development Group is part of RITE and focuses on the ability of rites and rituals to touch and create tangibility. We also test how new rites can be introduced in different contexts in society, in ways that open up other spaces of thought, interruptions, ways out and possibilities for action.

The group is Lars Noväng, Johan Forsman, Sara Granér, Ludvig Lindelöf and John Huntington.

More info at: www.rite.agency

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A performance about longing and waiting.
The work takes place in a place between the categories, an educational session where time has stopped, a spacecraft on an introspective journey. Here, a fractured story is told by three travel guides who also share anecdotes, demonstrate objects, and instruct the audience and participants in simple hands-on experiments that explore the strange predicament, the limbo, that The Office for Indeterminate Conditions represents.

The work is performed at Skogen in Gothenburg 30 Nov and 1 Dec 2024
It is 60 minutes long, performed in Swedish with some English elements.

A work by John Huntington
Performed by Abo Wejdan, Farzin Khosravi-Hawrami and Pablo Encinas Alonso.
Music by Arvsmassan

Watch the trailer:

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Drama consultancy: Ulf Mellström and Ann-Carita Evaldsson
Scientific advisory: Katarzyna Wojnicka

The work is inspired by interviews from the research project “Transnational single men” and financed by Vetenskapsrådet

More information about the project can be found here

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For information and how to book a spot, visit the Skogen website

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An exhibition at Köttinspektionen in Uppsala presenting experimental strategies from the alternative sides of bureaucracy and the undercurrents of administration. The show deals with the struggle that public servants have with different administrative systems. New protective measures are presented: various attempts to ward off feelings of powerlessness and ethical stress.

The title of the exhibition is borrowed from the Swedish Riksbank: the motto “Hinc robur et securitas”, is a form of incantation intended to guarantee the value of the Swedish krona. In this and other ways, institutions and companies use words of power to fortify themselves, embody and summon themselves into our everyday life. Sometimes in unpleasant forms.

A counter-movement is proposed here – a twilight bureaucratic community of acting officials and clerks who invent various techniques to escape frustration, create safe spaces, take over the words of power and pour warmth into the institutional operations.

The works in the exhibition are small-scale, nonetheless powerful, ceremonial acts presented in an educational format.

The opening of the show is 5th of October and it is up until the 20th
Artist talk 19 Oct at 16.00

In the exhibition there is a video describing the construction of light blue lumps for guidance, here is the link to the PDF with instructions:
Making Your Own Lump for Guidance – The complete manual

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More information about the show at Köttinspektionens website

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Based on Jan Watteu’s art collection, the artists Henrik Ekesiöö and Mikael Goralski have made a selection of mostly dead artists from the collection. These artists have then been brought together with contemporary living artists and organized according to the Deadly Sins in the expanded field. This strict division has since been abandoned for a more organic approach.

Kanslibyrån (Per-Arne Sträng & John Huntington) is participating with two works in the exhibition “KOSMISK KASTRERING # 4711 – En likkista snickrad inifrån” at Norrtälje Konsthall opening on Saturday October 5th 2024. The exhibition is up 5 October – 23 November.

Participating artists:
Max Book – Lova Hamilton – Alfredo Jaar – Mark Hampson – Armand Rosander – Eric M. Nilsson – Gunnar Hallström – Leif Eriksson – Ture Sjölander – Joakim Stampe – Pierre Olofsson – Georg Olofsson – Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd – Gun Key Åberg – Karin Wikström – Ida-Johanna Lundqvist – Petr Davydtchenko – Monica von Rosen – Lotta Melin – Margareta Renberg – Peter Geschwind – Lars Hillersberg – Bo Trankell – Peter Kinny Buster Hollingworth – Stig Sjölund – Mattias Hellberg – Karl Olov Björk – Hans Hermansson – Ida Idaida – Isak Sundström – Marianne Vlaschits – Alfonso del Moral – Alisa Grifo – KIOSK New York – Lennart Rodhe – Björn Stampes – Albert Contreras – Bror Hjorth – Viktor Rosdahl – Henrik Ekesiöö – Stefan Karrer – Peter Johansson Åke Nordlander – Pug Karlsson – Juri Markkula – Theresa Traore Dahlberg – Josefine Östberg Olsson – Hans Hatwig Klas Barbrosson – Sigvard Olsson – Lage Lindell – Randi Fisher – Lars Olof Loeld – Freddie Wadling – Sofia Viol – Mark Frygell – Lars Kleen – Daniel Johnston – Sandra Isacsson – Mikael Goralski – Jiri Geller – Louise Adelborg – Björn Larsson – Ester Cavallin – Lars Vilks – Lars Andersson – Leif Eriksson – Sam Westerholm – Ulf Olsson – Alberto Frigo – Paul McCarthy – Markus Öhrn – Pablo Picasso – Sture Nilsson – Tal R – David Åberg – Thomas Hansson Folke Fermelin – Sture Nilsson – Lennart Andersson – Ulla Wiggen – Christer Chytraéus – Benedict Drew – Gunnar Hallström – Kanslibyrån – Tova Mozard – Jan Håfström – Birgit Ståhl – Nyberg – Åke Pallarp – Roger Risberg – Sture Johannesson – Karl Grandin – Karl Grandin/A Formal Apology – Joakim Forsgren – Simon Sjöström – Leon Harmon/Ken Knowlton – Gunnar Löberg – Alf Olsson – David Finn – David Engström – Karl Marin – Michael Johansson – Petter Zennström

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More information about the exhibition

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This year Frihetsförmedlingen (The Swedish Public Freedom Service) celebrates its 10th anniversary, and at the same time has the possibility of inaugurating a permanent office in Boden. This is celebrated together with freedom seekers on site in the new self-service office, housed in Havremagasinet Konsthall.

The initiators Lars Noväng and John Huntington are present to describe Frihetsförmedlingen’s activities and discuss the connection between the development of freedom and the art of quitting.

At Frihetsförmedlingen’s self-service office in Boden, everyone is free to issue their own freedom permits, or give such a permit to others; to apply for other freedom meassures at the digital workstation, and of course to take advantage of the agency’s forms and other information that can be helpful when expanding your freedom. The office can also be used for structured inactivity and other forms of non-doing.

A warm welcome to the opening on Thursday 5 September at 17.00-18.00 at Havremagasinet in Boden

Opening speech and official inauguration at 17:30

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For more information see Havremagasinet website

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Kanslibyrån participates in the annual group exhibition at Årstad Konsthall, where the bureau had the opportunity to activate the former dairy owners home and office. Using everyday objects, the bureau shaped ritual symmetries on site in the different rooms.

Other participants in the exhibition are: Anita Wohlén, Caroline Mårtensson, Elin Wikström, Falkenberg Art School, Joel Stuart Beck, Johan Zetterquist, Josefine Östberg Olsson, Kanslibyrån, MASU, Mikael Ericsson, Nils Ramhøj and Peter Johansson.

The exhibition is open 13 – 28 July 2024, for more information see: Konst och Motor 2024

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A secret society of civil servants, administrators and public officials, initiated in May 2024

The Swedish word “Undercentral” (roughly translated to a “Sub-centre”) is the name for a room/facility in a building that, from its location in the basement, distributes heat to the entire house.

Undercentralen deals with the both complex and rigid reality found within administrative, bureaucratic professions and highlights how ritual methods and artistic expression can constitute a form of distributed art activity: Where an extensive network of officials becomes the creators of a simultaneously secretive and fully visible work of art that can be found all over the country.

The participants belong to professional groups that have clear functions aimed at all of us citizens: employees in both public and private institutions that provide different societal services and where everyday work is characterized by administration. It can be about everything from pre-school placements to bank matters, from social insurance handling to family counseling, internet delivery to tax reporting. Here are professional groups that shape large parts of our reality, handle all official matters, interpret the texts of public directives, and decipher the politics. Groups that have significant underlying power, a power that makes an ordinary working day full of highly existential matters and depth.

Regardless of the content of an activity, there are certain common psychological phenomena within many administrative professions, and Undercentralen highlights two of these: professional stress over being responsible for the well-being of other people and powerlessness in regard to the system design of one’s own work. The project therefore initiates a movement, a community of acting officials, who in various individual ways try to invent strategies and techniques to escape the frustration that these phenomena give rise to.

The network is populated by those who feel that something is missing on an existential level. The group provides a low-intensity activity at Sweden’s office workplaces and in its home offices. Presenting a tug of war between freedom and structure, between one’s own 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, giving rise to new ways of expressing oneself.

How do I join?

It is still possible to join the network and become a member of Undercentralen, a network of civil servants from different parts of the country who design and share small-scale works of art in their workplaces.

Anyone who is employed and has a job that is largely characterized by administration is welcome to participate. Practically, it is structured as a digital exchange, where small “exercises” are provided such as creative tasks, simple questions, and suggestions for interventions or observations. The documentation of these activities then gives rise to new exercises and workplace experiments.

Participation will be on a simple and playful level. If you want to participate or are curious and want to know more, send an e-mail to undercentralen1@gmail.com

The communication will be in Swedish. Participation can be either open or anonymous.

The project has financial support from Göteborg Stad, the title of the project was inspired by artist Lars Noväng

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A performance about longing and waiting.
The work takes place in a place between the categories, an educational session where time has stopped, a spacecraft on an introspective journey. Here, a fractured story is told by three travel guides who also share anecdotes, demonstrate objects, and instruct the audience and participants in simple hands-on experiments that explore the strange predicament, the limbo, that The Office for Indeterminate Conditions represents.

The work is performed at Skogen in Gothenburg 20-21 April 2024
It is 60 minutes long, performed in Swedish with some English elements.

A work by John Huntington
Performed by Abo Wejdan, Farzin Khosravi-Hawrami and Pablo Encinas Alonso.
Music by Arvsmassan

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Drama consultancy: Ulf Mellström and Ann-Carita Evaldsson
Scientific advisory: Katarzyna Wojnicka

The work is inspired by interviews from the research project “Transnational single men” and financed by Vetenskapsrådet

More information about the project can be found here

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For information and how to book a spot, visit the Skogen website

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For more than fifteen years, Kanslibyrån 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.

At Krognoshuset, Kanslibyrån will show a large selection of photographs of documented objects and actions, as well as a brand new sculptural installation. In the basement, you can take part in an interactive work created together with artist Lars Noväng.

“Our upright limbs move compulsively in time, on given drum beats we change direction, take a step forward or raise our hands. We are synchronized to our surroundings and move in clear patterns, where each movement is performed at the right moment in the choreography. This tactful performance of our anatomy is both beautiful and dangerous, we don’t have to worry about how our next movement will be carried out, or that we will make an embarrassing misstep.”

Here, Kanslibyrån believes that important countermeasurer are to carefully nurture the irrational and consciously highlight a curious and naive look at the environment. Small-scale interventions, imaginative sorting or the invention of one’s own symmetries become a form of long-distance mental training. The agency’s alternative structure for everyday life constitutes a ritual safeguard against our current production-oriented paradigm.

Opening 24 February 13.00 – 16.00

At 14:00. on the day of the opening, Kanslibyrån will read from its Program Statement.

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More information on Krognoshusets website

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I am participating with three new video tutorials in the exhibition “NUTOPIA – NEW CITY” at Studio 44 and TEGEN2 in Stockholm. The videos are part of the Twilight Bureaucracy Tutorials -series.

“NUTOPIA – NEW CITY gathers artists, architects, and researchers to explore the question of constructing a new city for some of the world’s many refugees. A starting point is the realization that flight and migration predate communities and cities.

The utopian, the fictionally imagined place of nowhere, is an important source of energy for political imagination but is also seen as the path towards authoritarian experiments and an overly optimistic ordering of life. Today, when the absence of hopeful, egalitarian, and radical visions is deafening, large-scale investments are still being made – with the relocation of Kiruna and emerging battery cities. Thus, the line between utopianism and pragmatic realism is drawn differently depending on whether commercial or humanitarian driving forces rule.

But suppose the utopian is the escape of thought (and art) from a dystopian reality. In that case, fleeing war and oppression can be seen as both the most necessary and utopian of actions, in the movement towards something unknown, perhaps better. Seen this way, the refugee is an essential community builder.

The exhibition is created through a process involving 12 artists who have created many new works never before showcased. In the exhibition are also booklets created by students in the Master course NUTOPIA: Rethinking Architecture and Migration is a collaboration between KTH Architecture and the Museum of Forgetting.”

Curated by Erik Berggren by Ida Rödén
Participating artists are Muhammad Ali, Heba Y. Amin, Maria Backman, Kalle Brolin, Nils Claesson, Felice Hapetzeder, John Huntington, Jakob Krajcik, Kristina Müntzing, Cecilia Parsberg, Erik Pauser, Paula Urbano & Nina Wedberg Thulin

Opening: Friday 23/2, TEGEN2: 17-20 and Studio 44: 17-22.

The image is a still from my film “How to Liquify the Organization (Alchemy at the workplace – Part 1)”

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More information

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