SUPERFLEX
Flooded McDonald's
January 22 – March 27, 2010
at Peter Blum Chelsea
For
Immediate Release:
SUPERFLEX
Flooded
McDonald’s
January
22 to March 20, 2010
Peter Blum is pleased to announce the exhibition SUPERFLEX: Flooded McDonald’s opening
on January 22nd at Peter Blum Chelsea, 526 West 29th Street, New
York. There will be an opening reception on January 22nd, from 6 to 8 p.m. This
is SUPERFLEX’s first solo show in New York.
SUPERFLEX
is a Danish collective, founded in 1993 by Bjørnstjerne Christiansen, Jakob
Fenger, and Rasmus Nielsen. The group has gained worldwide recognition for
their projects that deal with such issues as financial and economic markets,
democratic production conditions, self-organization, and environmentalism.
SUPERFLEX bases their international projects on what they describe as
“counter-economic strategies,” which aim to question power structures, agency and ownership by prodding at their
limitations.
The exhibition Flooded McDonald’s comprises
three of SUPERFLEX’s most recent film projects. In Flooded
McDonald's (2009), the centerpiece of
the show, a meticulously reconstructed true-to-life replica of the interior of
a McDonald's restaurant
gradually floods with water - no customers or staff are present. Slowly, the
water level rises until eventually the space becomes completely submerged. The 21-minutes film is not a specific
critique of McDonald’s or the workings of a multinational company, but instead
examines the consequences of consumerism. While the film remains open to
interpretation it touches on such issues as climate change and natural disasters.
The four-part video work The Financial Crisis (I–IV)
(2009) approaches the current financial breakdown as a psychosis that can be
treated therapeutically via hypnosis. A
professional hypnotist takes the viewer through four different stages of the
crisis (The Invisible Hand, George Soros, You, Old Friends). The
hypnotherapeutic narrative ranges from enthrallment in the system of
speculation to complete loneliness from having lost everything.
Burning Car (2007)—the
first film by SUPERFLEX—depicts an empty car on fire. Filmed in a single long
take, with a deadpan cinematic approach that features smooth panning shots and
close-ups, Burning Car plays with the
seductive vocabulary of car advertisements. The film can be seen as a response
to the riots sweeping through Western Europe in 2005-2007, and media depictions
of political unrest. In many ways, it
confronts the cheap sensationalism that turned the burning car into a potent
symbol for disorder.
SUPERFLEX work and live in Denmark and Brazil. Their work
has been exhibited nationally and internationally including solo
exhibitions at the Nils Staerk Gallery, Denmark (2009); South London Gallery,
England (2009); Prospect 1, New Orleans (2008); Kunsthalle Basel,
Switzerland (2005); Schirn Kunsthalle, Germany (2004); Museum of Contemporary
Art Kiasma, Finland (2003); Rooseum Malmo, Sweden (2002); Kunstverein
Wolfsburg, Germany (1999). Group exhibitions include shows at the Louisiana
Museum, Denmark (2009); MOCA Miami (2009); Taipei Biennial, Taiwan (2008); Van Abbemuseum,
The Netherlands (2007); Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Russia
(2007); Sao Paulo Biennale, Brazil (2006); and the CCA Wattis, San
Francisco (2006). Furthermore, SUPERFLEX was most recently awarded the George
Maciunas prize in 2009.
For additional information
and photographic material please contact Simone Subal at chelsea@peterblumgallery.com. Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 10-6