The Bureau for Investigative Immateriality (Byrå för undersökande immaterialitet) presents a slideshow combining text and photography, inspired by August Strindberg’s The Occult Diary. The Bureau is a duo consisting of the artist Marie Andersson and the writer Niklas Qvarnström, based in Malmö.

After years of pursuing Strindberg’s restless spirit in Paris, Lund, and Malmö, the Bureau makes a lightning visit to Malmö Konsthall with a slideshow recently shown at the Strindberg Museum in Stockholm. Along two parallel timelines—then and now—the more occult dimensions of existence are gradually teased out. What does carbolic acid and cologne actually smell like, and why? How can one explain the symmetry between a lit cigarette and a smoking chimney? And who is it moving in the attic?

The Bureau for Investigative Immateriality has been run since 2013 by the artist Marie Andersson (born 1962) and the writer Niklas Qvarnström (born 1969).

About the artists

Niklas Qvarnström (born 1969) is a writer and literary critic based in Malmö—a city he has examined and reworked in the essay collection Memento Malmö (2001) and in novel form in Turba – a Nineties Novel from the Future (2019). In the roles of secretary, detective, necromancer, and more, he runs the Bureau for Investigative Immateriality together with Marie Andersson.

Marie Andersson (born 1962) is an artist trained at Malmö Art Academy, living and working in Malmö. Throughout her artistic career, she has been interested in immaterial phenomena such as time, memory, loss, disappearance, weather, light, projection, and other phenomena without a material body. Her works are primarily realized through photography, but also through watercolor and text.