The Twilight Bureaucracy

  • Anna, Case Officer, The County Administrative Board

The Twilight Bureaucracy is a collection of events, objects and strategies that explore the undercurrents of bureaucracy and the alternative sides of administration.

The project is based on experiences from professional groups that have clear functions directed towards general citizens: employees in both public and private businesses that in some way provide a community service and where everyday work is characterized by administrative labour. In these occupational groups, certain psychological phenomena recur, such as for example an occupational stress of being responsible for other people’s well-being and powerlessness and alienation in regards to how the system of the institution is designed. The Twilight Bureaucracy describes a counter-movement, a community of acting officials, who invent various strategies and techniques to escape frustration, create sanctuaries, and pour warmth into the spaces in between.

The project is resulting in many different works and series of works where performative, dialogical and image-based practices constantly overlap. For example in performance works such as The Dark Administrator, The New New Gothenburg Spirit and The Potato economy. The youtube-channel The Twilight Bureaucracy consists of video works about the alternative side of administration.


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


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)


Other projects

En svensk robot (2013)

En svensk robot (2013)

En svensk robot (A Swedish Robot) is a hypertext narrative that revolves around themes of violence, power and manipulation.

Vildsvinsön (2013)

Vildsvinsön (2013)

Vildsvinsön (Boar Island) is a film about community, conflict, change and countryside. A fictional spoken story based on interviews with local residents.

Acidon (2010-2012)

Acidon (2010-2012)

A project in which we investigate a reality where everyone is increasingly surveyed, where private information is a commodity and personal integrity fades away.