the chairman of a golf-club who discovered that 3000 golf-balls were stolen from the clubhouse
the owner of a florist shop who didn’t get enough time to make a quote for a church’s Interflora Flower Relay
the man whose garden was visited by wild boars
the girl who had ten kilos of stone through the ceiling of her room after blasting work
the tenant who has to pay twice as much rent as his neighbour with an identical apartment
the two boat owners who had their landing-stage dismantled by their rich neighbour who needs space for his huge yacht
the cleaning-woman who is forbidden by the company-board to accept the money the workers of the factory want to give her
the parents whose daughter was squeezed in a gate at an amusement park
the two men who don’t want campers on their private properties
the slimmer known all over the country who has received hate mail with pictures of himself as a pig

The faces of Disappointed and Offended People which I collected from daily newspapers create a sort of ‘home-made’ taxonomic system. The work collects and documents complains in Sweden between 1994 and 2006 (first part) and 2006–2009 (second part).
Sweden has the reputation of being one of the most secure and healthy countries on earth. The very naive question functions as a starting point: What would then be the prevailing discontent in this paradise?

The images are reproduced using a very simple technique often used by children. The melting wax of a candle is dripped on the photos in the newspapers. After drying, the hardened wax is carefully removed with an imprint of the face on it. In the physical spaces of museums and galleries the objects are installed as a wailing wall, where the gaze of accusation is meeting the viewer.

The work is evocative of a wailing wall—the fact that complaining and wailing, even when it concerns “trivial” ordinary problems, needs a public space.The printed text ("magazine"), which is a part of the work, presents the different reasons behind the disappointed and offended faces. Every case is presented in one sentence, like a condensed short story.

The texts are never directly correlated to the faces, and it is up to the viewer to imagine which face connects with which text. These stories from the newspapers are normally consumed in an ephemeral way. By using the candle wax technique, it is possible to freeze this stream of complaints.

According to the text many of them consider themselves to be subjected to conspiracies, and all seek, in different ways, redress. The unjustness, the mishaps, accidents and distresses may seem to emanate from chance and unfortunate circumstances – the absence of the political. In this sense the collection may document a change in society.

The Disappointed and Offended / De besvikna och förorättade part 1 (1998–2006) belongs to the collection of .
Moderna Museet

**Inserts: **
The Disappointed and Offended, Cabinet Magazine (New York), Issue 7, Summer 2002.
https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/7/bartas.php

De besvikna och förorättade, Aftonbladet 27/7 2006

Exhibitions of The Disappointed and Offended:

The Strangest Stranger and Other Stories, solo exhibition at
Göteborgs Konsthall (catalogue available) 2016

Svensk Konceptkonst/Swedish Conceptual Art, Kalmar Konstmuseum 2010

Heartquake, Museum On the Seam – The Socio-Political Contemporary Art Museum, Jerusalem 2008, curated by Raphie Etgar (catalogue available)
Heartquake

Modernautställningen, Moderna Museet, Stockholm 2006 (curated by John-Peter Nilsson and Magdalena Malm)
Modernautställningen

Read Me, The Art Museum of Gotland, Visby 2004 (group show curated by Angelica Blomhage)

True stories, Norrtälje Konsthall, Norrtälje (solo exhition) 2003

Make it real, The Soap Factory, Minneapolis (group show curated by Alison Gerber)

Buildings and stories, Passagen, The Art museum of Linköping (solo exhibition) 2001

Magnus Bärtås, The Art Museum of Jönköping (solo exhibition)

Magnus Bärtås, works 1992-2000 Gävle Konstcentrum, Gävle (solo exhibition) 2000

Small Images of Truth, The Life Foundation, Stockholm 1999

Little Big Stories, The National Library, Skopje (group show curated by Suzana Milevska, catalogue available) 1998

Private Campaigne, The Pineapple Gallery, Malmö (solo exhibition) 1997

The Conspiracy, The Soap Factory, Athens, FOKA Gallery, Thessaloniki, Uppsala Konstmuseum, BildMuseet, Umeå, (curator and contributor, catalogue available).

Galleri Titanik, Åbo (Finland), solo exhibition 1996

Sen Fronteiras, VII Fotobienal, Casa des Artes, Vigo (Spain), goup show, (catalogue available) 1996

Adlercreutz & Björkholmen Gallery, Stockholm (solo exhibition) 1994

Reviews/texts:

Svensk, Fredrik, ”Raserade hus och rasande ansikten”,
Aftonbladet 11/4 2016

Jönsson, Dan, ”Suggestivt och kusligt undertryck”,
Dagens Nyheter 31/3 2016

Arndtzén, Mårten, ”Bärtås glada identitetspolitik”,
P1 Kultur/Kulturnytt 11/3 2016

Arvidsson, Sara, ”Magnus Bärtås på Göteborgs konsthall”,
Konsten.net 11/3 2016

Brygger, Karin, ”Magnus Bärtås | The Strangest Stranger… & Other Stories”,
Göteborgs-Posten 7/3 2016

Drews, Ann Cathrine, ”Conspiracy… you have got hold of an immense truth”, Munitionsfabrik, Vol 19, Karlsruhe Universität 2009

Etgar, Raphie, ”Heartquakes”, catalogue Museum on the Seam, The Socio-Political Contemporary Art Museum, Jerusalem 2008

Ljung, Rolf, ”Tankar om identitet”, Östran 20/6 2008

Madestrand, Bo, ”Galleriet: Tyck synd om mig”, Dagens Nyheter 6/4 2008

Melin, Lena, ”Vad är folkvett”, Aftonbladet 15/3 2008

Zaremba, Maciej ”Jaktscener från lärarhögskolan”, Dagens Nyheter 20/2, 2008

Haglund, Magnus, ”Nånting har hänt”, Göteborgsposten 17/8 2006

Östholm, Niklas, ”Magnus Bärtås”, Modernautställningen, Moderna Museet, Stockholm (catalogue) 2006

Nilsson, Håkan, ”Resa i underlandet. Från det privata till det allmänna – här diskuteras verkligen samtiden”, Dagens Nyheter 18/2 2006.

Kempe, Jessica, ”’Här är jag’. Ekorrens brandtal slår an temat”, Dagens Nyheter 18/2 2006

Weibull, Hedwig, ”Intressant om ords visuella kraft”, Svenska Dagbladet, 6/8 2004

Allerholm, Milou, ”Myllrande ord och minnen”, Dagens Nyheter, 17/7 2004

”Textbaserad samtidskonst i utställningen ’Read Me’”, Gotlands Tidningar, 12-13/6 2004

Olsson, Roland, ”Han har gjort klagomur av 600 porträtt i stearin”, Gotlands Allehanda, 12/6 2004

Kempe, Jessica, ”De förorättade får vittna uppåt väggarna”, Dagens Nyheter 29/11 2003

Levin, Margaretha, ”Avtryck av de besvikna”, Norrtelje Tidning, 10/11 2003

Halldin, Magnus, ”Fångade i vaxfläckar”, Östgötacorrespondenten 20/3, 2001

Borg, Bo, “Bärtås leker frejdigt”, Norrköpings Tidningar, 2001

Milevska Suzana ”Once upon a time”, in Little Big Stories (catalogue) , Directorate for Culture and Art, Skopje 1998

Larsson, Leif "Konspiration i konsten", Västerbottenskuriren 29/11, 1997

Olsson, Thomas "Samling kring Bärtås", Svenska Dagbladet 8/11, 1997

Weibull, Nina. "Vi lyssnar inte!", Aftonbladet 2/11 1997

Moreau, Patric. "Att beskriva verkligheten", Smålandsposten 23/10 1997

Karlstam, Christina. "Konsten som sanningstribun", Upsala Nya Tidning 14/11 1997

Zetterström, Jelena. "Konstnären som samlar på besvikelser", Sydsvenska Dagbladet 27/4 1997

Klinthage, Jörgen. "Människan i miniatyr", Arbetet 19/4 1997

Ekman, Fredrik. "Hidden Conditions", The Conspiracy (catalogue) 1997

Trotzig, Astrid. "Magnus Bärtås" VII Fotobienal Vigo (catalogue), Centro des estudios fotograficos 1996

Håkansson, Eva. "Spontan svensk bilddialog", Huvudstadsbladet 23/3 1996

Engdahl, Annika. "Tankeväckande installationer", Åbo Underrättelser 9/3 1996

Holm, Eva-Lotta. "Magnus Bärtås: Adelcreutz-Björkholmen", Material No. 23, Dec, 1994

Madestrand, Bo. "Stelnande liv", Expressen 12/12 1994

Matre, Towe. "Ond bråd död överförd i stearin", Svenska Dagbladet 2/12 1994

Ericsson, Lars O. "Våldsam skörhet", Dagens Nyheter 25/11 1994