Don’t Embarrass the Bureau
15 February–1 June 2014
Lunds konsthall
Mårtenstorget 3
SE-22351 Lund
Sweden
T +46 46355295
lundskonsthall [at] lund.se
Lunds konsthall is glad to present Don’t Embarrass the Bureau, a group exhibition curated by Matteo Lucchettiand featuring artists who question the workings of bureaucracy, in the time of so-called “leaked democracy,” by subjecting it to challenges that reveal how sensitive and even precarious it may be.
The title is borrowed from a novel from 1972. Its author, Bernard F. Conners, had then been a special agent of the FBI for eight years and claimed to have written the first book revealing all the Bureau’s secrets at all levels. The main rule that all agents must internalize is: “Whatever happens, never ever embarrass the Bureau.”
The secret services symbolize the highest degree of loyalty to an office, where the individual is expected to dissolve and vanish. Any act that embarrasses the Bureau—or any institution, organisation or office conscious of its reputation—will disrupt its regular functioning.
The artists and artists’ groups featured in the exhibition at Lunds konsthall are Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Rossella Biscotti, Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson, Luca Frei, Jill Magid, Metahaven, Song Ta, Jonas Staal, Superflex and Pilvi Takala. Moreover, the accompanying catalog contains special contributions by Trevor Paglen and Anna Scalfi Eghenter.
Superflex show a new work: a paper handed out to all visitors to make public the budget for Don’t Embarrass the Bureau.
Almost all these artists seem to ignore the title’s imperative request by purposely contaminating an office (a workplace, a formalized function, a bureaucracy) with critical or ambiguous acts and thoughts. The works in the exhibition question the legitimacy of the structures that govern our social, political and economic life: from public administration to the corporate office, including Parliament and the secret services.
By doing this the artists also expose themselves, as professionals performing outside the operational field usually granted to them. Through their work they make us aware of a space that any citizen might decide to conquer, if only temporarily.
After WikiLeaks revelations, loud calls for transparency are now being heard, not least through the leaking of classified information, data from mass surveillance and other secrets from the Bureau. This is forcing contemporary bureaucracy to reorganize. The activism of Aaron Schwarz and others like him, and whistle-blowers like Edward Snowden, also inspire us to re-think how we perform our roles as citizens under a regime of pervasive and enforced visibility.
In November 2013 the curator presented his research behind this exhibition within the framework of the Para Site International Arts Residency in Hong Kong, in an event titled Hong Kong Whistleblowers Club and comprising a two-part screening program and a discussion in the hotel where Edward Snowden was staying before going to Russia. The event thematized bureaucracy and embarrassment against the foil of Hong Kong as a diplomatic safe haven.
You can find more information about the research behind the exhibition at www.embarrassthebureau.tumblr.com.
Lunds konsthall thanks the lenders for this exhibition: Galerie Yvon Lambert in Paris, Galerie Diana Stigter in Amsterdam and Wilfried Lentz Gallery in Rotterdam. We are also grateful for the support granted by Frame Visual Art Finland in Helsinki.
