SUPERFLEX
A look at artist group SUPERFLEX's artistic practice and investigations into power, climate, and an uncertain future
By ART 2030
SUPERFLEX & ART 2030
An Expanded Collective
SUPERFLEX was founded in 1993 by Jakob Fenger, Bjørnstjerne Christiansen, and Rasmus Rosengren Nielsen.
Conceived as an expanded collective, SUPERFLEX has consistently worked with a wide variety of collaborators, from gardeners to engineers to audience members.
Challenging and Shifting Perceptions
Working across a wide range of media and topics, SUPERFLEX's artistic practice questions structures of power, ownership, collective action, environmental challenges and interspecies relations.
What is the relationship between the power of the individual, and the power of the collective?
Power Toilets/Council of the European Union 4 (2012) by SUPERFLEXART 2030
Power Toilets
Power Toilets questions public access to power structures.
Creating exact replicas of an object of everyday use - the toilet - in iconic political or corporate sites of power...
Power Toilets/Council of the European Union 2 (2012) by SUPERFLEXART 2030
Power Toilets
...the artwork brings the most inaccessible locations, such as of the United Nations Security Council and the Council of the European Union in Brussels, to public access.
How do we look at the world around us, and how can we imagine changes within them?
Still, Flooded Mcdonald's, SUPERFLEX. Detail: A flooded Cash Till and floating Ronald Mcdonald. (2009) by SUPERFLEXART 2030
Flooded Mcdonald's
In Flooded McDonald's, a convincing life-size replica of a McDonald's fast-food restaurant is gradually flooded. Furniture is lifted by the water, trays of food and drinks float around, electronics short circuit and eventually the space is completely submerged.
Après Vous, Le Déluge, SUPERFLEX. Installation View: Details seen from above. (2019) by SUPERFLEXART 2030
Après Vous, Le Déluge
While in the iconic Parisian department store Galerie Lafayette, a broken blue line indicates an invisible border of where climate-change caused rising sea-levels are predicted to reach
Après Vous, Le Déluge, SUPERFLEX. Installation View: Artwork on Column (2019) by SUPERFLEXART 2030
Après Vous, Le Déluge, SUPERFLEX. Installation View: Stairs Centered (2019) by SUPERFLEXART 2030
Après Vous, Le Déluge
A reminder of the rapidly threatening climate crisis, and an invitation to consider the palpable consequences of climate change on our everyday lives.
What does the future require of us in the present?
Vertical Migration, SUPERFLEX. Installation View. (2019) by SUPERFLEXART 2030
Pink Elements
Part of a continuous exploration into 'Interspecies Living', Pink Elements today appear as stand-alone sculptural objects, or as structural fragments of existing human architecture, such as a corner or column.
Pink Elements, SUPERFLEX. Installation View: crated sculpture centered, under blue light. (2019) by SUPERFLEXART 2030
Pink Elements
But when submerged in an aquatic environment, these structures will be repurposed by marine creatures. What is pillar for humans today could be a future penthouse for fish.
What tools can we use to reimagine the world?
Experience Climate As An Animal, SUPERFLEX. (2009) by SUPERFLEXART 2030
Experience Climate Change As An Animal
During the 2009 Global Climate Summit in Copenhagen, SUPERFLEX hosted a group session in which participants were hypnotized in order to perceive climate change from the point of view of a cockroach.
Sessions have also been created and planned to experience climate change as a jellyfish...
...an eagle...
...a polar bear...
...a mosquito...
...and even as a mammoth.
What can we learn from our differences and similarities, and how can we merge these to create sustainable societies?
Superkilen, SUPERFLEX. (2012) by SUPERFLEXART 2030
Superkilen
Superkilen is a public space in Copenhagen, situated in a population representing more than 50 different nationalities.
Superkilen, SUPERFLEX. Red Square. (2012) by SUPERFLEXART 2030
Superkilen
SUPERFLEX asked people from the area to nominate objects such as benches, bins, trees, playgrounds, manhole covers and signage, either from the country of the relevant inhabitant's national origin, or from somewhere else encountered.
Superkilen, SUPERFLEX. Red Square, from above. (2012) by SUPERFLEXART 2030
Superkilen
In total, the park now contains more than 100 different objects from more than 50 different countries. Created by the people, for the people.
It Is Not The End Of The World
SUPERFLEX invites us to reflect upon our present role in the face of our planet's most pressing issues and to imagine a future world filled with life beyond what we know.
Explore More about SUPERFLEX at www.superflex.net or follow their work on Instagram
Images courtesy and copyright of SUPERFLEX.
Artworks and Exhibitions featured in this story:
It Is Not The End Of The World at Cisternerne, 2019.
Power Toilets, at It Is Not The End Of The World, Cisternerne, 2019 and The Artist is Present at YUZ Museum, 2018.
Après Vous, Le Déluge at Galeries Lafayette, Paris, 2019
Vertical Migration and Pink Elements, at OMR, 2019 and MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, 2021.
Experience Climate Change As A..., 2009-2050.
Superkilen, Copenhagen, 2012.
You are all set!
Your first Culture Weekly will arrive this week.