Elgaland-Vargaland is a conceptual art project and

micronation A micronation is a polity, political entity whose representatives claim that they belong to an independent nation or sovereign state, but which lacks legal recognition by any sovereign state. Micronations are classified separately from list o ...

conceived and developed by Swedish artists

Carl Michael von Hausswolff Carl Michael von Hausswolff (born 1956) is a composer, visual artist, and curator based in Stockholm, Sweden. His main tools are recording devices (camera, tape deck, radar, sonar) used in an ongoing investigation of electricity, frequency, ar ...

and

Leif Elggren Leif Elggren (born 1950, Linköping, Sweden), is a Swedish artist who lives and works in Stockholm. Active since the late 1970s, Leif Elggren has become one of the most constantly surprising conceptual artists to work in the combined worlds of a ...

in 1992. It is also known by its acronym "KREV" (KonungaRikena Elgaland-Vargaland).

Origins

Von Hausswolff and Elggren formed the name out of their own names and define the country as being the

border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...

s of other countries. The decision to found the country and name themselves kings was in reaction to Sweden still having a monarchy. The country was announced in an advert in ''

Dagens Nyheter (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record A newspaper of record is a major nationa ...

'' newspaper. It was announced on May 27, 1992. Other Scandinavian artists have had micronations, such as

Lars Vilks Lars Endel Roger Vilks (20 June 1946 – 3 October 2021) was a Swedish visual artist and activist who was known for Lars Vilks Muhammad drawings controversy, the controversy surrounding his drawings of Muhammad. Many years earlier he had created ...

' Ladonia.

Operations

Elgaland-Vargaland has a flag and national anthem, issues passports and stamps on request, and has had a number of "embassies" (art exhibitions). Elggren often invokes "the image of a street-corner lunatic with a paper crown who declares himself King". In March 1994, they opened a "general consulate" at Thomas Nordanstad Gallery in New York and applied for membership of the United Nations. In 2002, on the tenth anniversary, a group of 10 travelled from Sweden to Estonia carrying only Elgaland-Vargaland passports - they were detained and their passports confiscated, and they were returned to Sweden the next day. They had planned to be turned away from each country in turn, indefinitely. The same year, they released a musical album titled "The kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland, 1992-2002", published by Ash International. In 2003, Elgaland-Vargaland attended a conference of micronations in Finland. As of 2007, the country had around 850 citizens and by 2014 they claimed 980 citizens. In 2007 they had 20 ambassadors; the embassy in Reykjavik opened in 1994 at the Nýlistasafninu (Museum of Fine Arts) the embassy in Berlin was opened in 2006 at the

Haus der Kulturen der Welt The Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), in English House of World Cultures, in Berlin is Germany's national center for the presentation and discussion of international contemporary arts, with a special focus on non-European cultures and societi ...

, and the Moroccan embassy opened in 2014 before the Marrakech Biennale. A "Consulate General" was held at Gallery 400 in Chicago for two months in 2007–8 as part of the city's Festival of Maps. They have a number of Ministers, mainly artists, including trumpeter Greg Kelley who is Minister of Fanfares. The claims extend to other "interstitial territories" such as the transition from being asleep to wakefulness (the hypnogogic state), and

limbo The unofficial term Limbo (, or , referring to the edge of Hell) is the afterlife condition in medieval Catholic theology, of those who die in original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the Damned. However, it has become the gene ...

and they also regard all dead people as being citizens. In 2007, they declared at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

that they had annexed the

Isola di San Michele The Island of San Michele (, ; ) is an island in the Venetian Lagoon, Veneto, northern Italy. The island contains San Michele in Isola, a Roman Catholic church, as well as the San Michele Cemetery, Venice’s principal cemetery. It is associate ...

, an island cemetery. This annexation project appeared at the Gallery Niklas Belenius in 2008.

Reception

KREV has been described as Elggren's most well-known work. Swedish newspaper ''

Expressen (''The Express'') is one of two nationwide evening newspapers in Sweden. Describing itself as independent liberal, was founded in 1944; its symbol is a wasp and its slogans are "it stings" or " to your rescue". The newspaper awards the cultu ...

'' said that "their little kingdom more and more resembles a dictatorship" and noted what they perceived as flirtation by the artists with fascism. Elgaland-Vargaland was also listed in

Nick Middleton Nick Middleton (born 1963 Jun 4) is a British physical geographer and supernumerary fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. He specialises in desertification. Middleton was born in London, England. As a geographer, he has travelled to more than 70 ...

's book on Atlas of Countries That Don't Exist.

References

External links

*
The Kingdoms of Elgaland Vargaland 1992-2002
from

Ash International Touch (sometimes mistakenly written 'Touch Records' and sometimes written Touch Music, which is technically the publishing side of the company) is a British audio-visual organisation, operating the Touch label. Touch was founded in 1982 by Jon ...

{{micronations Micronations in Sweden Conceptual art 1992 works Swedish art Relational art