And for just as many years, the Danish cult-collective has been examining our world, creating their very own combination of critique of capitalism, branding, and art
Jakob Fenger, Rasmus Rosengren Nielsen and Bjørnstjerne Christiansen (left to right) are Superflex, a visionary art collective translating burning social issues into action and art.
The Danish collective Superflex flooded a Mc Donald’s, invented a biogas company and a non-alcoholic mescal, built community parks and installations at Tate Modern and Galeries Lafayette. This year, Superflex turns 30, is exploring the South Pacific – and working on a Super Reef! We talked to Jakob Fenger, one of the collective’s three members, about how stupid ideas can turn into really good ones, why they are happy when they get kicked off their own projects – and which famous Danish designer created their logo.
In 2006, the flooding of a life-size replica of a McDonald’s brought you international fame. This work already tackled climate change and seems visionary today. How did you come up with it? Jakob Fenger: Even at that time, climate change was already an issue and people were worried about the earth’s condition. The idea came up because we were frustrated with us humans being a threat to the planet with the world we’re building. But of course, there was also the fascination to watch a McDonald’s get flooded and finally collapse (laughs).
Drowned capitalism: In 2009, Superflex flooded a McDonald’s to show what they thought of the fast-food chain’s expansion in Europe – and about branding
Big Mac packages and Coca-Cola cups were floating around, and you described the scenery as a big pool of brands.
Because the work talks about how we’re creating our world. And how we let brands like McDonald’s take it over. The logos were a symbol for that, and we liked it that they ended up in this kind of brand soup.
From the beginning, Superflex has always been interested in brands and you have even created your own ones.
In the 1990s, we invented a biogas company to replace fossil fuels. The art world was very excited about it, but the rest of the world was less interested. Maybe it hadn’t been ready yet and the brand would face better odds today.
