Since time immemorial, humans have looked to the sky and tried to describe and interpret what they cannot understand. With the advent of the still camera in everyday life, these phenomena could also be captured in images and disseminated – thereby arousing as much fascination as wonder. The images have been seen as evidence of extraterrestrial visits, divine interventions, conspiracy theories, or simply dismissed as false.

During the evening, we will meet Clas Svahn, journalist and author. He runs Archives for the unexplained (AFU), which is the world’s largest archive of “the unknown”. The collections contain nearly 30,000 images, many of which depict UFO phenomena. During the evening, Clas Svahn will talk about some of the photographs from the archive and discuss his work in examining and classifying the images.

Magnus Bärtås, artist and author, will also participate, providing a historical background to sky-gazing. In his artistic practice, Magnus Bärtås has worked with material from AFU, as in the video work Miraklet i Tensta from 2018 and as curator for the exhibition Jordskugga, which is currently on display at the Norrköping Art Museum.

Registration: Register via the form: Anmälan samtal (esmaker.net) If you have booked a place and are not present by 5:50 PM, your place will be released.

The conversation is a lecture series organised by the Stockholm County Museum and the Centre for Photography.

Participants

Clas Svahn is a journalist, lecturer, and author. He has worked at Dagens Nyheter, Mariestads-Tidningen, and Norrbottens-Kuriren. Svahn is chairman and international coordinator of the National Association UFO-Sweden and chairman of Archives for the unexplained (formerly known as Arkivet för UFO-forskning), AFU, in Norrköping.

Magnus Bärtås is an artist, author, and head of research at Konstfack. His works involve questions about storytelling, historiography, and alternative descriptions of reality. Bärtås is currently participating as an artist and curator (with Isak Sundström) for the exhibition Jordskugga – Arkivet för det oförklarade at Norrköping Art Museum. The exhibition highlights material from AFU, which deals with seeing and perception: visions, celestial phenomena, and other unexplained natural phenomena.

Clas Svahn and Magnus Bärtås have previously collaborated in Bärtås’ video work Miraklet i Tensta (2018), where he examines the consequences after a girl photographed a cloud in the sky, which was then interpreted as the apparition of the Virgin Mary.