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The exhibition Rituals of Administration features experimental strategies drawn from the alternative sides of bureaucracy, the undercurrents of administration, and the esoteric practices of economy. It addresses society’s pain points, logical fallacies, and obsession with growth, taking the daily work of office workers and civil servants as its starting point. It presents new protective measures — tenacious attempts to ward off powerlessness and ethical stress.

The exhibition proposes a counter-movement: a twilight-bureaucratic community of active civil servants who devise techniques to escape frustration, create protected zones, and infuse warmth into the interstices of institutions. By transforming everyday administrative routines into ritual acts, the exhibition explores the possibility of creating cracks in systems that otherwise appear closed.

The works in the exhibition constitute small-scale yet powerful ceremonial acts, presented through video, installation, objects, images, and photography.

Opening 10 October at Konstakademien in Stockholm
Exhibition is up 10 October – 21 November 2026

Image: Vibeke, Registrar, Municipal Executive Office, Halmstad Municipality.

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More information and opening hours

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Kanslibyrån (John Huntington & Per-Arne Sträng) has taken it upon itself to reshape ordinary objects and daily routines, imbuing them with new significance and meaning; everything surrounding us is seen as possessing an inherent potential for subversion and social critique—from the durable fabric of the office chair, a jam jar lid, a ballpoint pen, or a lightbulb to a simple greeting exchanged with a colleague. In the exhibition A Minor Adjustment to Reality, Kanslibyrån continues its practice of deconstructing the familiar into its constituent parts, only to reassemble them in a way that is simultaneously recognizable and radically different. It is an exploration of everyday phenomena and immediate surroundings, where the outermost layers of reality are shaved off, held up to the light, and literally seen through—much like an ultra-thin slice of cheese.

At Göteborgs Konstförening, Kanslibyrån presents a large number of Aids (Hjälpmedel)—amulets constructed from everyday materials, designed to offer support, protection, and strength in various aspects of life. In the larger installation The Workspace II (Arbetsrymden II), office paraphernalia and furnishings have found a new symmetry, transforming into a kind of contemporary site of devotion. A selection from the Archive of Actions displays documentation of subtle performance actions in public spaces.

Opening 12 Sep 12.00-16.00
Exhibition period 12 Sep – 4 Oct 2026

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As part of Live Art for Kids 2026, a whole new educational institution will be developed together with children in Aarhus. The event spans five days and invites everyone to take part in outlining how education will be performed in the future, fantasizing about an alternative school system. The school is built up from separate modules: a teacher, a classroom, a book, a sign, an employee, a school subject, etc. Together, creating an eclectic map, a kind of alternative organizational model.

Live Art for Kids is an annual festival by Live Art Danmark with international artists and groups exploring contemporary society in participatory works.

This year´s artists are: Jamal Gerald (UK), John Huntington (SE), Mette Riise (DK), Filip Vest (DK), Marcus Coates (UK), Feral Practice (UK), Leif Holmstrand (SE), Secret Hotel (DK), Random People (DE) and Live Art Danmark.

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More information about the festival schedule

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Show opening at Diö Konsthall 22 August 2026, showing a new conceptual textile artwork.

The Omnivores is a talisman created to protect against the economic forces that shape our lives. The work is based on the idea that banks are at the top of the economic food chain; they are institutions that, through their ability to create and lend money, define many of the conditions of people and places.

The talisman consists of five hand-dyed wool fabrics. Each fabric has been dyed with plants collected at the offices of major Swedish banks: weeds, moss and leaves that grow in cracks and along facades. The plants represent the life force that takes place even in the most controlled environments. The dyeing process also uses urine from current and former bank employees – a substance that has historically been present in both crafts and rituals for purification, protection and transformation.

By combining organic plant material with bodily traces of the institutions that the work is aimed at, the work is symbolically charged with a double power. The work functions as a poetic act and a practical protective object intended to deter threatening market forces.

Opening: 22 August 13-16, Inauguration speach/performance at 14:00

The work could not have been done without the aid of six present and former bank employees, who generously contributed with their bodily fluids, and a great thanks to Anna Lo Huntington for doing all the needlework.

Diö konsthall is an independent, experimental art venue run by artist Ella Tillema, consisting of a handmade flagpole, where the art is raised towards the sky.

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More information about Diö Konsthall

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In the exhibition An Alternative Standard, Kanslibyrån offers an in-depth study into everyday situations, overlooked objects and ordinary places. With the two projects The Archive of Actions and The Standard Stick, the bureau uses small-scale artistic interventions to highlight, scrutinise and reorganise the elements of everyday life.

Image: “Action No. 481: Wear blinders”
Exhibition opening: 13 June 11.00-15.00, opening speech 12.00
Exhibition period: 13 June – 16 August 2026

For more information see the Kungsbacka konsthall website

More information about the two projects in the show:
The Archive of Actions is the bureau’s most extensive project and consists of 789 documented artistic actions carried out primarily in public environments. The project follows a carefully developed method with lists, selection processes and planning on several levels. With the actions, Kanslibyrån tries to create shifts in perspective that invite reflection and resistance.

With the production of The Standard Stick, Kanslibyrån highlights an object that everyone has a relationship with, which carries emotional content and personal stories: an ordinary wooden stick. It is a type of object that speaks to our intuition and imagination, but which has difficulty finding a place in an overly efficiency-oriented existence. A stick stands outside traditional economic and transactional thinking. The stick becomes a symbol for the values ​​that cannot be pronounced, that are easily lost in words. In the project, the public has been invited to contribute sticks perceived to have positive qualities, within the framework of a citizen science initiative. The bureau has compiled all the information about these sticks and the average values ​​of the data have resulted in a new standard for good sticks. This new standard constitutes a pedagogical aid for those who have difficulty finding their way into, or back to, the imaginative world of sticks. In a world of choices and voices, a stable reference point is provided, that can be used in the search for one’s own gut feeling.

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Kanslibyrån (The Secretariat Bureau) is participating in the show PLAY with a large selection of documented actions from the long-term project The Archive of Actions.

“During the summer, the exhibition PLAY is presented in nine different chapters, each connected in various ways to Havremagasinet Länskonsthall’s annual theme for 2026 – PLAY. Through exhibitions, programmes, and new “studios,” the word PLAY is explored beyond its perhaps most obvious meaning of playfulness. Here, the term expands to also include playing, starting, and activating. PLAY can also become an approach: to act, to try on roles, to pretend – and through this, discover new perspectives.”

Participating artists are: Anne Marte Overaa, Lena Stenberg, Fanny Carinasdotter, Pablo Sigg, Desiree Bergström, Kanslibyrån (Per-Arne Sträng & John Huntington), Ludwig Rosengren, LoL Studio (Linnea Rosenqvist & Linnéa M.F. Larsson), Torgeir Vassvik & Ståle Stenslie.

Opening of the exhibition is May 30 at 12pm

For more information about the show, see the Havremagasinet website

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More information about The Archive of Actions

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I am participating with a work inspired by how cities and municipalities traditionally present new residential areas and development projects, where very specific values ​​are at the center and where people’s more fallible, ambivalent, and vulnerable sides are often absent. The project consists of three linked parts: publication, sculpture and performance, which together offer an experiential alternative.

Read more about the project: Emotional Urban Planning: The Screaming Pit
The work is produced in collaboration with RITE (www.rite.agency)

The Trondheim Biennale is opening 2nd of May 2026 and is Norway’s largest artist-driven biennial for temporary projects in public space – an experimental platform in the transitional phases of urban development, where artists are given a central role in exploring and activating the city’s spaces.

The Trondheim Biennale 2026 will take place in Østbyen and at Nyhavna, an area in the initial phase of an urban development driven by both public and private actors. At the same time, Trondheim has a long tradition of citizen-initiated activism, resistance and participation. Based on this history, the biennial examines how art can open new perspectives on the use of the city in transitional phases. The Trondheim Biennale is an initiative started by artists Line Anda Dalmar and Per Kristian Nygård.

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More for information about the biennale and the full program

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The Dark Administrator (Svartadministratören) is a performative lecture on bureaucracy and resistance. With the office workplace as the starting point, the work examines contemporary human beings’ heavy addiction to systematizing everything around them.

The work is a documentary collage of examples, stories, and demonstrations in which an everyday frustration linked to feelings of powerlessness and loss of meaning unfolds. Various forms of ritual protective measures are presented and an alternative professional role slowly emerges from the shadows, accompanied by apocalyptic tones composed by musician Dödsvarg (Jon Ekström).

The work is performed at Kulturhuset in Stockholm on Saturday 18 April at three occasions: 19:00, 20:30 and 22:00. The performance is in Swedish

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For more information see Kulturhuset Stadsteatern

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The work originated at Skogen in Gothenburg and has also been performed at Live Art Denmark in Copenhagen. At Kulturhuset, an updated version will be performed.

As part of a residency at Live Art Denmark, a new educational institution was developed together with a fifth-grade class from Sankt Ansgars Skole in Copenhagen. The project was carried out over five separate sessions, during which the pupils could describe and fantasize about an alternative school. The school was built up from separate modules: a teacher, a classroom, a book, a sign, an employee, a school subject, etc. Together, creating an eclectic map, a kind of alternative organizational model.

The project will continue as part of the Live Art for Kids festival in Aarhus in September 2026.

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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.

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