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. At Galleri 54, Kanslibyrån exhibits a large selection of photographs documenting objects and actions as well as text based works.
Opening Friday Nov 4, 18.00 - 21.00
Link: Galleri 54

During the spring and summer, we have summoned more people to Kanslibyråns operations. Now approx. 1200 people, or 0.12 per thousand of Sweden's population, is a members of one of the bureaus working groups. Each group is assigned a task and consists of about a hundred participants. Membership can be seen as an honorary assignment, a call to action or a break in the daily routine.

Read more here: Working groups

This year's conference will take place in the forest between Töreboda and Laxå 11-12 June. There are three intensive program items on the agenda, where repetition and structure are at the center.
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 Friday and Saturday to experience the gathering digitally.
Instagram: @kanslibyran

Växjö Konsthall Kanslibyrån is very happy to be able to continue its mission of advocating friendly inefficiency, naive thinking and positive irrationality in an exhibition at Växjö Konsthall. “The artists Per-Arne Sträng and John Huntington are performing actions, a kind of everyday revolt against habitual behaviour, bureaucracy and the notion of a rational society. They do it by hacking well known paths and executing a kind of controlled explosions of phenomenons we barely perceive but still obey. "
Link: Växjö konsthall

Konsthall323 was founded by Frida Krohn and Ylva Trapp in 2010, and has since hosted a vast number of exhibitions and events. Now the institution is celebrating its ten year anniversary with a group show of former collaborators, and Kanslibyrån is very happy to be counted as one of these. Other participating artists are Anna Sörenson, Ami Kohara, Aeron Bergman, Alejandra Salinas, Maria Toll, Elisabeth Frieberg, Ulrika Gomm, Anne-Liis Kogan, Gabi Dao, Cissi Hultman, Karin Backström och Jon Perman.
Link: Konsthall 323

Participating artists: Nils Agdler & Fröydi Laszlo, Olle Andersson, Marie Obbel Bondeson, Virgil Dejarv, Benedikte Esperi, Annette Folkedotter, Anna Sissela Gustavsson, Gunilla Hansson, John Huntington & Per-Arne Sträng, Mauri Knuuti, Hannah McDonald, Nike Nilsson, Björn Perborg, Henrik Rylander, Ilona Huss Walin, Irene Westholm, Lena Danielsson Wulcan

Link: Trailer Videorama 1
Link: Galleri 54

Kanslibyrån have been Invited to make a digital exhibition on Galleri Se Konst Instagram account for one week, 11 – 17 April 2020. We take the opportunity to show excerpts from our Visionary Archive that have never been shown before.

@gallerisekonst


Link: Galleri Se Konst

Kanslibyråns new exhibition, entitled "Alternative Defense Measures", opens at Alingsås konsthall on Saturday 25 January 2020 at 10.00-14.00. The exhibition contains both new and old works - All revolving around the small-scale art activism and enchantment of everyday life that Kanslibyrån has worked with for the past twelve years.

Link: Alingsås konsthall

Kanslibyrån has been fighting against efficiency and productivity in the public arena for more than a decade. Now the bureau has developed a set of new tools, objects intended to help in a concrete way in the fight against rationalization and measurability. With a starting point in everyday issues around jobs, family, finances, relationships, attitudes, etc., the agency seeks to provide concrete support in how destructive norms and conventions can be counteracted.
Link: Gallery Box

Kosmisk kastrering Prague at Gallery NTK, Curated by Henrik Ekesioö, Mikael Goralski, Joakim Forsgren and Alexander Peroutk



Link: Gallery NTK

Opening at Crum Heaven May 1, from 1 pm until late “Kastrering av inre rum” Curated by Mikael Goralski and Paulina Drakenstedt. Högbergsgatan 38-40, Stockholm. The show is on until May 31, 2019. instagram.com/crumheaven


Link: Crum Heaven

Senaste nytt om löneslaveriet’ (Latest news on wage slavery) an Easter show featuring works by Daria Bogdanska, Frida Klingberg, Frihetsförmedlingen, Johannes Samuelsson, Magdalena Nordin, Kanslibyrån and Sonia Hedstrand, curated by Sonia Hedstrand, produced by Etta Säfve & Jona Elfdahl.


Link: Gylleboverket

The exhibition covers eleven years of Kanslibyrån’s activities, where two of the most extensive projects is the The Archive of Actions and The Phantom Administration. New to this show is an increased focus on the industrial aspects of our daily lives, portrayed in extensive attempts at deliberately pursuing counter-productive activities.

Link: Konsthallen Trollhättan

Welcome to Växjö Konsthall for an afternoon of and irrationality and subjective logic. Kanslibyrån invites you to an event in-between performance, workshop, coffee break and school lesson. The day follows a carefully designed and structured model aiming to shift our view of everyday life and charge it with poetic and political content.

Link: Växjö konsthall

The exhibition presents two artistic institutions that explore the development of freedom in relation to contemporary society. They both use the irrational and absurd as possible ways of giving critique to labour society, obedience systems and government power.
Curator: Camilla Påhlsson

Link: Varbergs konsthall

Kanslibyrån is participating with a work in the exhibition Cosmic Castration 5x5. Other participants are: Eva Aldén Luthman, Lena Anderson, Nikolas Bakovic Perez, Jonatan Björkman, Sahar Burhan, Erika Canohn, Christer Chytraéus, Josef Daagarsson, Paulina Drakenstedt, Henrik Ekesiöö, Leif Elggren, Joakim Forsgren, Alberto Frigo, Mikael Goralski, Samuel Lidskog, Lucas Lundh, Anette Lundkvist, Johanna Möller, Ulf Olsson, Charlotte Ostritsch, Axel Petersén, Felicia Rauma Andersen, Roger von Reybekiel, Erik Seppas, Simon Sjöström

Kanslibyrån invites you to book release at Rönnells Antikvariat. Bengt af Klintberg introduces the book and John Huntington & Per-Arne Sträng presents their work and do a performative reading. "Several of Kanslibyrån´s actions illustrate what is proper or improper behavior in the public space, how our behavior is governed by a thousand different rules, how it´s suspicious to laugh for no reason or to put a poster in a place where it´s not permitted.” - Bengt af Klintberg, writer and artist

Link: Rönells antikvariat

Kanslibyrån, in collaboration with Skogen, invites you to book release and discussion. During the evening, John Huntington & Per-Arne Sträng presents their work, Mona Lilja, Associate professor and a Senior Lecturer in International Relations, talks about irrational resistance, and Annika Lundgren, artist and writer in the book "Aktionsarkivet", speaks about her text "Loopholes in the matrix".
Link: Skogen

Supported by Göteborgs Stads kulturnämnd.

Now, the ten-year project is summarized in book form

The book consists of photo documentation from The Archive of Actions, together with texts by Annika Lundgren, Bengt of Klintberg and Kanslibyrån.

oon you will find more information on how to get a copy of the book, as well as about book releases in Gothenburg and Stockholm

Supported by Konstnärsnämnden

Kanslibyrån is pleased to announce that we pass action number 500 in conjunction with the exhibition. The Archive of Actions now consists of 513 actions, a selection of these will be shown in the exhibition.

Link: Skånes konstförening

Kanslibyrån was invited to show new and old work at the exhibition space Sydhavn Station. In the former ticket office we show photographic documentations from the Archive of Actions, outside in the station area we exhibit posters directed towards the everyday commuters.

Link: Sydhavn station

The Continuous Surface of the Welfare State

Presents:
Secretary (Karin Matz, Rutger Sjögrim, Helen Runting) Artists: Klas Eriksson, Kanslibyrån, Mattias Bäcklin



Link: Allkonstrummet

Friday, September 30th at 15:00 to 19:00, we open the exhibition "Waiting for a miracle - Excerpts from Kanslibyrån's Archive of Actions" at Gocart Gallery. The actions in the archive aims to break up normative understanding, habitual patterns of behavior and conventional ideas of what is constructive and socially acceptable. The archive is a political statement, a small-scale struggle against an overly structured life that we challenge by cautiously attempting to break out of the shackles of comfortable everyday life.
Link: Gocart Gallery

Kanslibyrån are participating in the 9th Shiryaevo Biennale in Russia with the scuplture "Proposal No 32: Modified pen". The work are exhibited within the framework of Haus zwei presented and curated by Serious Collision Investigation Unit Coalition: Felix Gmelin, Alan Armstrong, Joakim Forsgren, Mikael Goralski, Amanda Hårsmar, Ronak Moshtagi and Kjersti Austdal.

Link: Serious Collision Investigation Unit Coalition

Kanslibyrån participates in an exhibition in a castle setting, with a set of Office Totems from the Phantom Administration project. "Substitutet opens its doors for the summer and the market value of our joint art treasure is skyrocketing. In glittering backlight we are spraying Sturehov Slott in champagne. Participating artists: Therese Johansson, Henrik Ekesiöö, Alice Söderlundm, Christer Chytraèus, Mikael Goralski, Per Stenborg, Ferdinand Evaldsson, Eskil Loftsson, Sandra Isacsson, Stina Persson Helleday, Kansilbyrån, Marja-leena Sillanpää”

After many years, Kanslibyrån returns to the North. The institution was formed in Umeå, and is now going to perform new actions in the city. The result will be presented at Galleri Verkligheten, where both documentation of recent and older actions from The Archive of Actions will be presented.
Opening of the exhibition is Friday 22 January at 19.00 The exhibition is then open 23 Jan – 13 Feb.

Kanslibyrån will host a workshop in structured irrationality on Saturday 23 Jan at 13.00 – 15.00. Everyone is welcome and no prerequisites is required.
Link: Verkligheten

Kanslibyrån is contributing to 13-festivalen. A performance festival where artists meet audience and professional artists share stage with art students. We are happy to be part of a great line-up of artists. Kanslibyrån will present and describe object from the sculpture series Fantomförvaltningen to the attending visitors.
The festival is 4-6 January 2016 at Konstepidemin in Gothenburg Kanslibyrån will have a presentation 5 January at 21.00
For more information 13-festivalen

During the spring of 2015 Kanslibyrån has worked with the municipal administration in Angered with trying to find irrationality in the everyday work. In the project Kanslibyrån investigated the office environment, working methods, information material, office supplies and also meet and talked to employees. From this investigation new work of art has evolved.
Opening on the 26th of September 13-16
Medborgarkontoret is open: Monday to Thursday: 10-16 Friday: 10-14

Kanslibyrån is on site in the corridors of municipal administration. During one week we are conducting a survey, documenting buildings and interiors, as well as discussing and talking with our fellow bureaucrats at the Angered district administration. The result will be a number of new proposals and objects in the series The Phantom Administration, presented in conjunction with GIBCA Extended (Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art) in September 2015.

As a part of the Three White Soldiers Work and Display Program, Annika Lundgren, Niklas Persson and the artist group Kanslibyrån will host the program Magic & Politics at Skogen. The program includes a day time work shop and an evening with dinner, artistic work and socializing time. Magic & Politics also constitutes the inauguration of the Resistance Archive- a key element in Lundgrens research project Performing Resistance and one that will be hosted by Skogen for the future.

Link: Skogen

The Phantom Administration is a series of new objects and office items that Kanslibyrån have designed for Swedish institutions. Kanslibyrån has taken on the mission to help their sister institutions around the country to improve the working environment, organization and attitude. The project is now presented in a one day exhibition at Slakthusateljéerna in Stockholm.

Link: Slakthusateljeerna

In connection with Creative Time Summit, that take place at Kulturhuset during the weekend 14-16 November, Kanslibyrån will perform a new series of interventions on site in central Stockholm. The actions is an addition to the neverending project The Archive of Actions and the planned interventions will be number 355 to 370 in the archive.

Link: Creative Time Summit

Kanslibyrån is participating in the exhibition Restaurering av inre rum (Restorations of inner rooms) that is taking place inside and outside of Charlottenburg mansion in central Solna. In the exhibition contemporary artist such as Jan Håfström, Karin Mamma Andersson, Åsa M Waldau, Carinne Löfgren-Williams and Lasse Åberg meets existing artworks and environments. Also participating are: The reincarnation of Anne Frank, The Leonardo Da Vinci of Solna, Christine Ödlund, Felix Gmelin and a multitude of other artists. Borrowed artifacts such as the boots of Christer Pettersson and art from the mythical Edelweissförbundet’s spaces.
Link: Restaurering av inre rum

An exhibition about bureaucratic barriers, futility and the will to be free.
Participating artists are :
MINNA HENRIKSSON (FI)
ULF LUNDIN (SE)
MARTE HODNE HAUGEN (NO)
RUBEN WÄTTE (SE)
KANSLIBYRÅN (John Huntington & Per-Arne Sträng, SE)

Länk: Studio 17

The strategies are sharpened, the planning is rigorous and surgical precision is applied in the latest works by the bureau. In this exhibition at Cigarrvägen 13 in Hökarängen, documentation of new and old actions from the archive will be on display.
Opening on Wednesday 12 February, 18-22
The exhibition is then open Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th of February 12-17

Link: Cigarrvägen 13

A selection of Kanslibyråns activities are presented in the fourth number of the magazine Little Finger. Participating artists: Alina Vergano / Bjørn Hegardt & Theo Ågren / Cajsa Von Ziepel / Clay Ketter / Danilo Stankovic / Emma Hartman / Erik Svetoft / Inka Lindergård & Niclas Holmström / Kanslibyrån / Kurir / Linda Spåman / Lisbeth Eugenie Christensen / Loana Ibarra Mazari / Louise Kelpe / Malin Bergström / Marion Fink / Per Svensson / Peter Callesen / Særún Hrafnkelsdottir Norén / Simon Bukhave / Sofia Hydman / Willem Andersson

Link: Little Finger

Kanslibyrån is now encouraging the public to participate in the work with the Archive of Actions. Through careful research a selection of important actions have been put together. This selection will be provided during three days in Borlänge. Our hope is that more will join the struggle towards the present order. On site in Borlänge visitors can see documentation of performed actions or have a conversation about irrationality, peace, love or art.

Link: The blog of The General Archive of Actions (Swe)

The Archive of Actions is growing and will be extended during the festival Survival Kit 5 in Riga. We are invited to participate and give our version of the term Slow Revolution. The focus is on the importance of margins, overturning positions of power and questions the dominance of the centre. These are notions that Kanslibyrån are happy to illuminate.


Link: Survival Kit

Kanslibyråns planned visit to the (cancelled) festival Peace & Love was written about in Fria tidningen (The free newspaper). Where the upcoming project The General Archive of Actions was presented. We planned a campaign to widen our target groups to include youths and music enthusiasts. The struggle for irrationality and defiance is unfortunately opposed on all fronts by economic fluctuations and festival death, but this do not discourage Kanslibyrån to continue the plans for Borlänge

Link: Irrational activist art at Peace & Love (Swe)

In the beginning of October Kanslibyrån embarked on a journey to Mariefred, where we promoted our ideals about the necessity of an irrational and naive perspective. The dense history of Mariefred, with the Gripsholm Castle close by and the nostalgic miniature railroad, marked the place as an obvious target for Kanslibyrån’s activities.



Image: Action No. 266: Counteract autumn.

Kanslibyrån has undertaken the mission to transform and challenge the daily operations of Swedish institutions. So far, the Employment Service, Insurance Agency, Tax and Social Services have been under the microscope. Through concrete proposals and intervention Kanslibyrån shows the way towards a more humane and nuanced bureaucracy.




Photo: Ballograf pen with six meter long chain

On Friday the 16th of December between 16.00 and 17.30 we are presenting our latest work Operation Reorganization at Konsthall 323, which will be situated outside the Swedish Tax Agency’s offices in Stockholm.

Documentation and reflections from our journey are presented as a an audiovisual piece.

Link:
Konsthall 323

Kanslibyrån is participating in the exhibition Avtryck: from actions, interventions and play to observations of the public space, with documentation of the work The Paper Revolt.
About the exhibition: The vision of the public space proclaims a place with accessibility for everyone, where individuals, thoughts and opinions can meet on equal terms. Despite this vision, some interests are given more space than others...

Länk:
Skellefteå Konsthall

The Bureau is participating in Float All In Windows, which is the first collective and public presentation of work of the artists and cultural producers who have their studios at Slakthusateljéerna. Float All In Windows draws its title from the command in Photoshop which assigns all open documents a separate display window. Similarly, twenty-six artists occupy the empty spaces on the floor above the studios and project space, during the exhibition period.

Link: Slakthusateljeerna

Kanslibyrån presents The American Chapter and other parts of The Archive of Actions. At Galleri 54 in Gothenburg, documentation of actions performed in- and outside of Sweden are displayed.

Opening: April 1st, 18 - 21
Exhibition is between 1st of April and 1st of May.

Link:
Galleri 54

Kanslibyrån have been commissioned to do a public piece in Skellefteå. During one week in December 2010, the bureau reorganized and reshaped printed material that were found in the public space of Skellefteå. The result will be shown at Skellefteå konsthall in the end of 2011, in an exhibition curated by Fanny Carinasdotter.

Link:
Skellefteå Konsthall

The work with The Archive of Actions - The American Chapter has now commenced. Work have been conducted at both Wall Street and Times Square among other places. We see a street life in great need of irrationality and thoughtfulness.

Kanslibyrån is once again travelling to the U.S, this time to New York to conduct lobbying and present our activities at the CCS Bard Bulletin Board. During two weeks in October we are continuing to build The Archive of Actions with the addition of The American Chapter.

Link:
The Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary Culture

Kanslibyrån is participating in VERKA, an exhibition in the form of seminars, at Studio 44 in Stockholm. We are contributing to the exhibition with a lecture on the 12th of September at 18.00.

About the exhibition: VERKA is a rare imperative, that challenge you to take place and act, with a possible political tone. It gives associations to the art world, as a verbification of the word: work...
Link:
Studio 44

Now the campaign A more Concrete Society is launched, where Kanslibyrån claims that a changeable and often chaotic society needs more directives and guidelines. The goal is to once and for all deal with ambiguity and create a safe and more controlled society.

Simultaneously, an archive of rules and regulations is started, with the aim at mapping new and old rules, prohibitions and demands that are perceived as important to a sustainable society. The 13th and 14th of August Kanslibyrån will inform the public at Sergel’s Square in central Stockholm

About the festival: MADE is arranged by Norrlandsoperan and is Umeå’s annual performative arts festival with a constantly surprising mix of expressions and art forms. It is a meeting of international artists and artist of high caliber, local creators, enthusiasts and a broad public. Music, Art, Dance Etc - MADE is much of everything!

Link:
MADE-festivalen

Kanslibyrån is participating in the festival that are hosted by Kulturens hus in Luleå. Other participants are: Roi Vaara (Finland) Sons of Liberty, Anne Pajunen, Black Bag Operations, Sofie Weibull, Lasse och Mats, Ulrika Nouttaniemi, Gabriel Bohm Calles, Rasmus Albertsen, Lina Palmqvist, Rasmus West, Matti Sumari, Mariel Rosendahl, Artgroup Triko, Nina Sigurd, Sofia Breimo, Olga Prokhorova

Kanslibyrån is opening an office at Galleri Pictura and is temporarily moving all activities to Lund, where we are looking forward to research and survey the current norms.

Opening January 17th

Link:
Galleri Pictura

Video screening and video installations by students from the nordic art academies.

Kanslibyrån is represented by Per-Arne Strängs video work: Hanoi 12 April 2008 and I was here, that also are the 110th action in The Archive of Actions: Travel to foreign and exotic places and make movies without any kind of exotic elements.

The message of Kanslibyrån travelled together with Ylva Trapp, Frida Krohn and Galleri 60e to Detroit, and the exhibition space Cave.

On the eve of U.S elections and in global financial crisis, new alternatives and radical measures are much needed, something that Kanslibyrån gladly helps USA with.

Kanslibyrån is participating in The (deviant) Art festival. We will be present and counteract the present order in Trollhättan. We seek out the habitual behaviors and the ingrained rules to break them. The documentation of our activities can be seen at Konsthallen Trollhättan during the exhibition period. In connection with this Kanslibyråns activities in the Gothenburg region have been intensified.

Links:
The (deviant) Art festival
Konsthallen Trollhättan

Kanslibyrån was represented at the Bachelor show of the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts, a group show produced by students with a dominant exhibition architecture in wood.

Chosen parts of The Archive of Actions were shown in different parts of the exhibition space.