CBK just released a calendar for 2026, in protest against the recently introduced official Swedish cultural canon. We think it’s not only unnecessary but also a nationalist attempt at building a national identity and therefore counter to the very evolution of humanity.
Since it’s aimed at a specifically Swedish context, it’s written in Swedish and illustrated by Oskar Aspman, Jakob Dittmar, Caroline Ulvros and me. Printed in 2-color risoprint. Cover by Oskar Aspman.
Många är säkert överens om att den officiella svenska kulturkanon var ett onödigt projekt, ett försök att bygga en nationell identitet genom att lyfta upp ett antal verk och företeelser som skulle sammanfatta den svenska folksjälen. Efter att ha hånat projektet (både dess syfte och urval) över en middag i Ystad, satte sig fyra illustratörer och valde ut 12 saker som också format Sverige men som inte direkt bidrar till nationell stolthet. Resultatet blev denna kalender för 2026. Köp den som julklapp till den som behöver påminnas om hur landets historia också är fylld av mindre smickrande element, eller den som vill gotta sig lite åt hur värdelöst det är med nationalism. Från skotten i Ådalen till Vipeholmsexperimentet, Boforsaffären och Rasbiologiska Instotutet.
Tryckt i tvåfärgsriso för en grafisk upplevelse som varar hela året!
As a sample, I’ll let you see my three illustrations, for February, July and November:
Some context:
February is about the pension reform of 1993/-94, because in the official canon, they included an earlier, more egalitarian pension system. This one, however, which was insituted by a similar right-wing government to the one we have now, made sure to better preserve class differences even after the end of our work lives. Which, for example, will probably make it impossible for me to be able to relax during my time as a pensioner since I will need to keep finding other ways to pay my bills.
When it was introduced, it was made too complicated for the news to properly report on what it would entail, so public debate before it was too late was more or less nonexistent.
November is about Karl XII, the Swedish king from the 1600s whose death brought what is called (and was called even in its own time) the Age of Liberty. He also lost a lot of territory previously occupied by Sweden and was killed (possibly) by one of his own soldiers with a button since they were out of bullets. These days he is only celebrated by Nazis.
My drawing is, as you can see, a before/after version, with the kingkilling button/bullet included in the corner there.
I once illustrated a book about the clashes between Nazis and AntiFascists in Lund during the period 1998-2008, which I still have a few copies of, but that’s another story…
Speaking of the cultural canon, I made a comic about the project in 2023, around the time when it was first announced, shown in Tusen Serier‘s (Anti)rasism exhibition and in an issue of Brand.
A Perfect Place to Call Home is Julia Nascimento’s first collection of visual narratives about her experiences and reflections of life in different places as a foreigner. Stories about living everywhere and living nowhere.
I also wrote an alternative version of my introduction, written from the perspective of an AI text generator. See if you can spot the difference:
