A literary destination, a boy whose head is on fire and twisted references to everyday life in an office are mixed in an art world where anything is possible. The Public Art Agency consultant Åsa Bergdahl has created an imaginative art collection for Utbetalningsmyndigheten (the Payment Authority).
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Boy with Fire (2009), Jonas Kjellgren
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Kjell Andersson, I vägen
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Föremål etthundratjugotvå:vill alltid göra två
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Nils G Stenqvist, Spegelknä II och Spegelknä XIII
Statistics, security, but also “the bigger picture”, the little people and thinking outside the box have characterised the new art collection at the Payment Authority. A collection produced by the Public Art Agency consultant Åsa Bergdahl and the representatives from the authority who were part of the consultation group. The overall mission of the Payment Authority is to prevent and detect incorrect payments from the welfare systems. It was established in January 2024 and has its premises in Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm. Due to their mission, they place high demands on security, which is also reflected in the collection.
In the entrance, the perimeter security and the safety aspect are exceedingly noticeable. Here, Åsa Bergdahl’s intention has been to create a feeling that is both welcoming and respectful. A large textile work without title, by Barbro Nilsson in collaboration with Handarbetets Vänner, gives a soft and welcoming impression. Just next to it stands Margon Lindberg’s earthenware sculpture En av ’De två kungliga med knappar’ (One of ‘The Two Royals with Buttons’) – a play in form and colour with the pattern of the Payment Authority’s heraldic coat of arms in blue and gold. In the conference room next door is Dan Perrin’s work, whose title Växternas hemlighetsfulla liv (The Secret Life of Plants), evokes thoughts about what may exist beyond what we think we see.
Humour and energy
Once through the perimeter security, we are met by contemporary works with humour and energy. Jonas Kjellgren’s large sculpture Boy with Fire stands in the canteen. A young boy wearing a T-shirt, shorts and gym shoes with a head on fire meets the staff. Nearby there is a small untitled painting by Andreas Eriksson and also Matti Sumari’s Happy Slag platter 1 and 2, in which non-recyclable aluminium cans, used at various vernissages in Malmö, have been given new life. In the small conference room next door, Maria Johansson’s rocking paper punch Föremål etthundratjugotvå:vill alltid göra två (Object one hundred and twenty-two:always wants to make two) gives a humorous picture of office life.
Bright orange lines blazingly criss-cross in an austere black sculpture – are they diagrams, flows, statistics or socio-economic curves? It is Ingela Palmertz’s Rumslig relation III (Spatial Relationship III), standing as a solitary figure in a conference room.
Journeys behind closed doors
The computer department of the Payment Authority’s has extra security requirements. The rooms are locked and can easily create a sense of confinement. Here are three photographs that take us on a journey to Jonathan Swift’s imaginative destinations in the 18th century novel Gulliver’s Travels. Utan titel (Brobdingnag) (Untitled [Brobdingnag]) is a photo series consisting of three works by Lennart Alves. Showing sea and sky under different lighting conditions, they open up and give space in the enclosed. Brobdingnag, the land of giants, was the destination of the second journey in Gulliver’s Travels. Another nod to the novel has been detected, as the first trip was to Lilliput. The two computer terms big-endian and little-endian describe two possible ways of structuring ones and zeros in image and other computer files. The terms originate from one of the novel’s famous conflicts, where two religious sects of Lilliputians fight over how to properly crack a boiled egg, through the bottom or the top – big end or little end.
Though different from each other, three black and white works create an entirety on the other side of the room’s nave: Eva Marklund’s Slöja (Veil), Lars Rolf’s Strö (Strew) and Hanna Holmgren’s Stora mörka moln II (Big Dark Clouds II).
Thinking outside the box
There is a common thread in the collection that fits both the authority’s mission and the special conditions of the premises, but there are also works with hints of speed, of breaking boundaries and perhaps not being as moderate, such as Sture Johannesson’s Hexagon IBMP Grayscale generation and Kjell Andersson’s I vägen (In the way). Åsa Bergdahl hopes that the works will be able to demand something from the viewer and perhaps challenge you to find new ways of thinking.
In the premises there are also Jukka Mäkela’s sparse Minnesstycke (Commemorative Piece) and Anna Sörenson’s painting Omöjligt att minnas III (Impossible to Remember III), which connect back to the dots, circles and colourful play in the entrance area and to the sky that can be found in several of the works in the computer department. But the titles can also allude to old-fashionedness or confusion – or perhaps partial oblivion and denial when someone’s actions are scrutinised and subjected to juridical review.
Åsa Bergdahl also hopes that the works in the collection will evoke different kinds of associations, mind games and conversations. The art collection consists of different expressions and different materials, and given the breadth, most people will be able to find favourites or works to discuss and find their own interpretations – everything is possible in the world of art.
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