Bengt af Klintberg, who is exhibiting at Galerie S:t Petri from October 26 to November 6, has in recent years mainly been active as a folklorist.
He has published the collections “Svenska trollformler” (Swedish Spells, 1965), “Svensk folkpoesi” (Swedish Folk Poetry, 1971, together with Finn Zetterholm), and “Svenska folksägner” (Swedish Folk Legends, 1972). For several years he has also taught folklore at Stockholm University.

However, he began as a poet, publishing two collections of nature poetry. In 1962, he was one of the first to introduce happenings in Sweden, and during the following years he wrote several plays, including “Lidner” for Pistolteatern in Stockholm.

In 1966 he published the book “Stockholmsspelet” (The Stockholm Game), which — besides poems and diary entries — contains a series of “events”, that is, pieces that can be performed both on stage and in everyday life. The concept of “event” was invented by the American George Brecht and developed mainly within an artists’ group and its branches in the USA, Europe, and Japan known as Fluxus.

During 1963 and the following years, Klintberg participated in Fluxus concerts in Düsseldorf, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Oslo. Many Fluxus artists consistently refrained from producing enduring art objects and instead devoted themselves to creating actions that were art and that survived only as memories among those present — or, at most, as photographs.

In a few of his own exhibitions, Klintberg transplanted Fluxus aesthetics into a Nordic environment. In April 1965, for example, he decorated a forest outside Stockholm with blocks of ice. The exhibition melted while the audience walked around and viewed it.

His exhibition at S:t Petri, titled “Skogsdykaren” (The Forest Diver) — earlier shown this autumn at Fylkingen in Stockholm — consists mainly of photographic documentation of a diving suit placed in various forest environments during different seasons.

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The Forest Diver by Bengt af Klintberg
Edition Sellem, Fack 7, 221 01 Lund 1, Sweden
Autumn, 1974
3 dollars incl. postage

Bengt af Klintberg, whose pamphlet “The Forest Diver” now appears in the Edition Sellem, is a Swedish poet and artist, who also works as a folklore scholar. He is a lecturer at the Ethnological Institution at the University of Stockholm, and he has published several well-known books on Swedish folklore, such as “Svenska trollformler” (Swedish Magic Spells), “Svensk folkpoesi” (Swedish Folk Poetry), and “Svenska folksägner” (Swedish Folk Legends).

His poetry includes the books “Stigar” (Paths), “Ormkungens krona” (Crown of the Snake King), and “Stockholmsspelet” (The Stockholm Game). As an artist, he is influenced by the art theories of the Fluxus group, of which he became a member at the beginning of the sixties.

He has performed happenings and events in Stockholm and other Scandinavian cities. His exhibition “The Forest Diver” has been shown in Stockholm and Lund during the Autumn of 1974.