SUPERFLEX/SELF-ORGANISE/GUARANA POWER
14 April - 16 May 2004
REDCAT (the Roy and Edna/Disney/CalArts Theater)
631 W. 2nd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012 USA
+1 (213) 237-2800
Gallery Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 12 noon-6 pm or curtain. Closed Mondays.
Exhibition Dates: 14 April to 16 May 2004.
www.redcat.org
Opening Reception: Wednesday, 14 April 2004, 6-9 p.m.
Superflex in discussion with Professors Madhavi Sunder and Anupam Chander: 18 April 2004, 3 p.m.
Closing Reception: Saturday, 15 May 2004, 7-10 p.m.
With a diverse practice that engages art, design and economic structures of dependency, Superflex challenges the role of artists in contemporary society. The collective of Rasmus Nielsen, Jakob Fenger and Bjornstjerne Christiansen focuses on developing “tools” such as SUPERCOLORS, a set of color parameters to be used as an open source for different activities, SUPERGAS, a portable biogas unit that converts organic waste materials into methane gas used for cooking and lighting, and SUPERCHANNEL, a network of local studios to be used as a discussion forum, presentation medium, and physical gathering place. Superflex’s activities and projects are an employment of these tools in particular situations and locations.
For SELF-ORGANIZE/GUARANA POWER, Superflex will present an installation that addresses the concept of self-organization, an ongoing theme in their work. GUARANA POWER is a soft drink developed by a farming cooperative in Maues, Brazil in collaboration with Superflex. The drink contains guarana, a plant native to the Amazon whose fruit has long been harvested by indigenous communities for its medicinal and energy-giving properties. Recently, Maues guarana farmers have formed the cooperative COAIMA to challenge the activities of multinational corporations whose sugary, diluted energy drinks have corrupted the physical and symbolic properties of the plant. These same corporations hold a monopoly on the raw material, which has forced the price of guarana down eighty percent, undermining the sustainability of entire communities. GUARANA POWER is one attempt to disrupt the current economic equation by appropriating the strategies of multinational capital, here global branding, to reclaim the integrity of local agriculture and industry. During SELF-ORGANIZE, Superflex will activate REDCAT with various presentations including the transformation of the space into a self-organized cinema.
On Sunday, 18 April at 3pm, Superflex will be joined by Madhavi Sunder and Anupam Chander, professors in the School of Law at the University of California at Davis in a discussion of legal strategies to address local economic disenfranchisement. The members of Superflex are visiting faculty in the spring of 2004. For more information on this and other projects, please visit www.superflex.net or www.superchannel.org. Superflex is based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
SUPERFLEX/SELF-ORGANISE/GUARANA POWER is made possible in part by The Visual Arts Centre of The Danish Arts Agency with support from RJ’s Soda Service. Gallery programs are made possible by the Booth Heritage Foundation and the JL Foundation.
