founded 1993 in Denmark
www.superflex.net
Superflex, (Jakob Fenger, Rasmus Nielsen and Bjonstjerne Christiansen) works on projects related to economic forces, conditions of democratic production and ideas of self-organisation. The group’s practice attempts to demonstrate a new form of artistic attitude. Their starting point is a heterogeneous, complex society and when they assemble the project and development team, they take into account the specific interests of the ‘users’ – the individual group of people effected by their efforts and the different opportunities for articulation, as well as their interests and projections. Superflex describe these projects as tools, products or systems that are not the exclusive property of the artists and that only make sense when they are being used or adapted independently by others.
In their project Guarana Power, the artists developed a soft-drink together with local farmers who cultivate the caffeine-rich berries of the guarana plant. While Superflex are not necessarily opposed to commercialism and globalisation, they try instead to render visible alternative economic structures and hint at possibilities for autonomous productivity that can function outside normalised systems of monopoly. Another project Free Beer, applies contemporary free software models— which can be modified, improved and shared - to a traditional, globally available product - beer. By offering the ingredients or ‘source code’ of a usually highly guarded recipe, the project prompts the consumer to consider the wider possibilities of ‘open source’ systems from both practical and philosophical perspectives.
In recent years Superflex has participated in exhibitions including the 2nd Berlin Biennial, 2001; Utopia Station, 50th Venice Biennale, 2003; 9th International Istanbul Biennial, 2005; 27th Sao Paulo Biennial, 2006; as well as in exhibitions at Rooseum, Malmö, 2002; Kunsthalle Basel, 2005; Kiasma, Helsinki, 2006; Tate Liverpool, 2007 and KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2008.