SUPERFLEX: SUPERSHOW
April 17 – May 29, 2005
Opening and Party: Saturday, April 16, 2005, 7pm – 12pm
Talk with the artists: Saturday, April 16, 2005, 3pm
Kunsthalle Basel
Steinenberg 7
CH-4051 Basel
T +41 61 206 99 00
F +41 61 206 99 19
info [at] kunsthallebasel.ch
Opening hours: Tue/Wed/Fri 11am-6pm, Thu 11am-8.30pm, Sat/Sun 11am-5pm
www.kunsthallebasel.ch
The Danish artists’ group SUPERFLEX (Rasmus Nielsen, Jakob Fenger and Bjornstjerne Christiansen) has been working together since 1993 on a series of projects to do with economic forces, democratic production conditions and self-organisation. The artists have examined alternative energy production methods and commodity production plants in Brazil, Thailand and Europe in their projects which both expose and question the existing economic structures. These artistic activities – as for example the on-going project “Guarana Power”, in which the artists developed a drink together with local farmers who cultivate the caffeine-rich berries of the guarana plant – are not necessarily opposed to commercialism and globalisation, but try instead to render economic structures visible and to establish a new balance between producers and consumers. SUPERFLEX describe their projects as TOOLS, as proposals that invite people to actively participate in and communicate the development of experimental models that alter the prevailing economic production conditions. Assisted by experts who bring in their respective special interest, these TOOLS can then be further utilized and modified by their users.
Over the past years, SUPERFLEX has achieved international recognition with their projects. In 2004, the Danish artists had solo exhibitions, among others, at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt am Main, the Redcat Gallery in Los Angeles and the gallery side 2 in Tokyo. In 2003, SUPERFLEX participated in the “Utopia Station” exhibition at the Venice Biennale.
The Kunsthalle Basel is proud to present the SUPERFLEX/ SUPERSHOW. For some time now, the three artists have been preoccupied with the notion of surplus value: how does it come about, and what mechanisms influence it? Based on the fact that art museums and institutions in the 1990s became more and more like brand-names, or are perceived as such, the artists aim to explore the surplus value of the Kunsthalle. The art institution will be examined from the same economic and social viewpoints as the ‘Nike’ or ‘Ikea’ brands. Throughout its history, the Kunsthalle Basel has already gone through various identity-seeking stages which have been orchestrated by different directors/curators. Last year, after comprehensive refurbishment the Kunsthalle assumed a whole new image once again.
With “SUPERSHOW – more than a show”, SUPERFLEX will subject the Kunsthalle to a precise analysis and demonstrate to the visitors the increase in the immaterial value of the institution since its beginnings. The “Kunsthalle factor” will be defined by different experts, whose economic and political perspectives will be presented in the exhibition. The “Kunsthalle factor” will be calculated based on the average difference between the former value of the exhibited artworks and their current market value. The Kunsthalle’s surplus value, however, is not solely determined by economic standards. For this reason, SUPERFLEX will also expose the institution’s ideal value. The focal point of the artists’ attention will be the audience: the visitors will become both the subject and the producers of the SUPERSHOW. The attendance, the visitors’ figures, is becoming an increasingly important factor in evaluation of performance of art institutions. Big museums have to attract larger and larger numbers of visitors in order to legitimize their role vis-a-vis state and private funding. Within the logic of subsidized culture, the “tax-payer money” has to produce a significant amount of visitors. Superflex follow this line of thinking and they intend to reward the audience for coming to the show. The exhibition itself is to be a “value escalation machine” in which the visitors assume an active role and produce a surplus value. This dynamic process can provide the “Kunsthalle” brand with further definitions.
Supported by the Danish Arts Council, Committee for International Visual Art
