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Press release: SUPERFLEX / POWER TOILETS
Opening: Wednesday 30 June, 4:00pm
Location: Park van Luna, Strand van Luna beach, Heerhugowaard

SUPERFLEX / POWER TOILETS
A copy of the toilets from the United Nations Security Council headquarters, New York installed in Park van Luna, Heerhugowaard for public use.

Power Toilets is a copy of the toilets used by the members of the UN Security Council in the UN Headquarter, New York. The UN building was the result of the collaborative efforts of a multinational team of leading architects. When completed in 1952, it stood as a symbol of unity after the Second World War and has since hosted many historic aspirations, speeches, debates and gatherings of world leaders.

Based on photos taken secretly, the interior of the Power Toilets is identical in detail to that of the sanitary facilities at one of the most secure buildings in the world. Bathers and canoeists at the Park van Luna are now free to use the same toilets as the world's most powerful leaders. The interior design is typical to the 1950's including a lot of marble, steel and the iconic American Standard appliances. The exterior has a neutral nondescript shape like it was cut out of the UN-building in New York and moved intact to this new development in Noord-Holland.

Power Toilets is a project created by the Danish artist group SUPERFLEX and realised in close collaboration with NEZU AYMO architects. Originally commissioned by DRFTWD office associates for the municipality of Heerhugowaard in 2004. It was accomplished in 2010 with support from the province of Noord-Holland and SKOR, Foundation Art and Public Space. Contractors: Bouwbedrijf Gerrits & Sinnige b.v. and Sculpfiction. Special thanks to Christie Arends.

Press images:
http://84.238.114.205/press/tag/power_toilets

CRIMETIME - a starplay by SUPERFLEX in the planetarium at Vitenfabrikken in Sandnes, Norway.

"He has painted his face with shoe polish and robs the bank with a starting pistol from the speedway track"

Vitenfabrikken in collaboration with art consultant Anne-Marte Eidseth Rygh and Sandnes Municipality, invited Superflex to create a work for Vitenfabrikken. Superflex has responded by launching an entirely new genre, which has been dubbed "starplay", created specifically for Vitenfabrikkens planetarium. CRIMETIME presents the audience with the dimension of time travel, but it is not the creation of the universe Superflex highlights. We meet rather the very local story about "Speedway Stig", a notorious member of the criminals "west land mafia" which for years ravaged Jæn on the Norwegian west coast..

Rasmus Nielsen of Superflex says:
-In CRIMETIME we see the world in a cosmic perspective. We show how the stars were exactly that morning in 1999 when Speedway Stig robbed the bank in Nærbø. We use the planetarium as a large magnifying glass and focus in on 90 seconds of local history.

Superflex has found insipiration in Thomas Ergo's great documentary book "Kjeltringer" (Nordic Crime Chronicle, 2008) and is thus based on events that actually took place in Jæren ten years ago. But in the starplay CRIMETIME it is the audience itself that controls time - so it feels, while the stars pass through above.

Sven Gundersen from Vitenfabrikken says:
"We have always been very interested in the time here at Vitenfabrikken. The planetarium can travel thousands of years back and forth, but in this story it is a bank robbers stopwatch that is vital. So what time is it that is important in a historical perspective? This is just one of the questions that this story asks."

"On Focus Bank on the square in Nærbøclock is still ticking. Speedway Stig wants the money, he wants all the money"

CRIMETIME can be viewed at the at the planetarium at Vitenfabrikken in Sandnes from 23/06/2010

Jærmuseet

TODAY WE DON'T USE THE WORD 'RECESSION'

Ireland is entering into a new era since the predicable but untimely death of the Celtic Tiger economy, once lauded as the fastest growing economy in the world. This great Celtic-Tiger economy driven by liberal bank regulation, bad political governance and a reliance on speculative property development led house prices in Ireland to rise by almost 520% in 15 years. Now the Irish GDP is shrinking faster than in any other advanced economy. The average Irish family has lost half its financial assets and unemployment has risen faster than anywhere else in Europe. Ireland have moved from the poster child of the globalised free-market to one of the great European basket cases, as an Irish economic commentator was recently quoted as saying.

For the Midsummer Festival in Cork, Ireland, Superflex has made a new artwork "Today we do not use the word 'Recession'" that invites all the citizens of the city te involved. Superflex encouraged The Lord Mayor Cllr. Dara Murphy to bring a proposal to the city council that would ban the use of the word 'Recession' in the city of Cork. Out of this came a decree advocating that for one day, on June 17th 2010, the citizens should refrain from using the word 'Recession'. The Decree states:

***

DECREE

TODAY WE DON'T USE THE WORD 'RECESSION'

Through the power of positive thought and collective action, Lord Mayor Cllr. Dara Murphy decrees that for one day, to lift ourselves out of the doom and gloom the citizens of Cork should refrain from using the word

'Recession'

The citizens of Cork are invited to join with the Lord Mayor in the collective ambition to help drive Cork out of recession and into recovery from this day forward. To kickstart this recovery the lord mayor requests on Thursday 17th June, 2010, that the people of Cork shall in all public utterances, statements and communications, replace the word 'recession' with alternative words or phrases. Citizens are asked to create their own new alternatives, thus contributing to re-imagining the future of the City of Cork. And so recommend to the people of Cork under the Common Seal of the Lord Mayor.

***

The decree will be announced through a week long publicity campaign in newspapers, radio, TV and through posters in the streets. 'Today we don't use the word Recesssion' is commissioned by the National Sculpture Factory and Cork Midsummer Festival.

Date: June 17th 2010
Place: City of Cork, Ireland

The National Sculpture Factory
Cork Midsummer Festival
A blog that follows the project: superflexcork.wordpress.com

FREE SOL LEWITT
Van Abbemuseum
April 10th - September 12th, 2010

Extract from museum Press release:

The Van Abbemuseum has invited SUPERFLEX to work with the museum's collection. They have responded with the exhibition In-between Minimalisms and a new work, FREE SOL LEWITT - an installation made specially for the second part of Play Van Abbe. The museum is sometimes described as a prison in which the artwork is 'locked-away' like a criminal. With FREE SOL LEWITT, the artists playfully ask the Van Abbemuseum to 'set free' the work of the American artist, Sol LeWitt, Untitled (Wall Structure), 1972. SUPERFLEX has set-up a metal workshop inside the museum in which exact replicas of the specific artwork by LeWitt are made and then shared amongst the museum's public, free of charge. The copies will be distributed to the public through a random system which visitors to the museum can sign-up for.

FREE SOL LEWITT will be put into context by SUPERFLEX in the exhibition In-between Minimalisms. This exhibition will consist of artworks from the periods of Minimalist and Conceptual art found in the Van Abbemuseum's collection. Issues such as mass production, intellectual property, seriality and the artwork as concept are raised. FREE SOL LEWITT will be accompanied by a special publication and the seminar Who Owns the Artwork

The Exhibition has been curated by SUPERFLEX, Daniel McClean and Christiane Berndes

Press release continue below or use link to Van Abbemuseum website:
http://tinyurl.com/2wnp8x6

Seminar and publication
On 14 May the seminar Who Owns the Artwork? (English spoken) takes place in the Van Abbemuseum. The aim of the seminar is to examine and discuss issues relating to authorship, copyright and the ownership of artworks by public institutions.
For more information: http://tinyurl.com/34el8mo

Van Abbemuseum
Bilderdijklaan 10
Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Opening hours
Tuesday to Sunday 11:00 - 17:00
Thursday 11:00 - 21:00
On Thursdays, entrance to the museum is free from 17:00
For more information, please visit http://www.vanabbemuseum.nl

Press information and images can be downloaded from:
http://www.vanabbemuseum.nl/en/press/

Or contact:
Ilse Cornelis, Communication & Press Van Abbemuseum
Phone: +31 (0)40 238 1019
Mobile: + 31 (0)6 12995794
i.cornelis@vanabbemuseum.nl

The poster is now available at Superflex office:
Superflex
FOREIGNERS, PLEASE DON'T LEAVE US ALONE WITH THE DANES

The poster is now available at Superflex office:
Superflex
Blaagaardsgade 11b
2200 Copenhagen
Monday-Friday 12-15

or at:

We are related
Sankt Hans Gade 19
2200 Copenhagen
http://wearerelated.net
Friday-Saturday 12-18
Sunday 12-16

SUPERFLEX solo show at Peter Blum - Chelsea
January 22 - March 20
Opening Friday January 22, 6 - 8 p.m

Peter Blum, Chelsea
526 West 29th Street
New York, NY 10001
T: +1(212) 244-6055
http://www.peterblumgallery.com
Gallery Hours:
Tuesday - Saturday: 10-6

Excerpts from press release from Peter Blum:

Peter Blum is pleased to announce the exhibition SUPERFLEX: Flooded McDonald's

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.

Flooded McDonald's is co-produced by South London Gallery, Oriel Mostyn Gallery & Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, with support from Danish Film Institute
Burning Car, is co-produced by De Vleeshal
The Financial Crisis (I-IV) is commissioned by Frieze Foundation for Frieze Film & Channel 4
All 3 films are produced by Propeller Group

ECOLOGICAL BURIAL CONTRACT
By signing the Contract you commit yourself to an ecological and climate friendly burial in the case of death during the 12 days of the UN Climate Change Conference.

This contract is developed by Superflex as a contribution to New Life Copenhagen. NEW LIFE a social experiment inviting us all to rethink our way of life, realized parallel to the climate conference.
New Life Copenhagen is organised by Wooloo.org

Press images: http://84.238.114.205/press/tag/contract

FREE SHOP BOOK RELEASE

PORK SALAD PRESS, NILS STÆRK AND SUPERFLEX
INVITES YOU TO THE RECEPTION OF THE BOOK:
FREE SHOP - ANYTHING THE CUSTOMER WANTS TO PURCHASE IS FREE
Thursday August 26th November 4-6 PM at Gallery Nils Stærk, Ny Carlsberg vej 68, DK-1760 Copenhagen
It is a great pleasure to present Superflex new book FREE SHOP.
FREE SHOP takes place in ordinary shops at certain times - determined by Superflex and the shop owner - where the goods or services purchased in the shop are free of charge. FREE SHOP has been implemented in Norway, Denmark, Poland, Germany and Japan. The book consists of documentation from the various shops participating as well as interviews.

The book is published by Pork Salad Press and Superflex in collaboration with Dynamo 2008 Haugesund, Haugesund and the Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen.

Read more

Press images: http://84.238.114.205/press/tag/free_shop

THE FINANCIAL CRISIS (SESSION I-V)

The Financial Crisis (Session I-V) is a new film work in which SUPERFLEX address the financial crisis and meltdown from a therapeutic perspective.
The Financial Crisis (Session I-V) has been created for Frieze Film 2009 and is screened on Channel 4's innovative '3 Minute Wonder' slot from Monday 12 October to Thursday15th October, at 7.55pm.
The Financial Crisis (Session I-V) is also presented at the Frieze Art Fair from Wednesday 14th October to Sunday 18th October.
View site

TODAY WE DON'T USE THE WORD DOLLARS
SUPERFLEX's artwork for One Day Sculpture involves the employees of Auckland's Karangahape Road branch of the ANZ bank. For a single day, Wednesday 27 May 2009, 09.00 - 16.30 all employees of the bank cannot say or use the word 'DOLLARS.' The staff must use other words of their own choice to explain themselves to customers and co-workers. If they break this pact they must pay a fine of $1 into a staff social fund. www.onedaysculpture.org.nz

Wednesday 27 May 2009, 09.00-16.30

Anz Bank, 312 Karangahape Road, Newton, Auckland
BURNING CAR MOVIE FREE ON THE PIRATE BAY
Burning Car is a film by Superflex in which a car is set on fire. The empty car starts to burn, the cabin is filled with smoke and fire, carpaint is bobbling, tires exploding. Towards the end the car is burned out completely.
"Burning Car" movie is available at The Pirate Bay in two versions:
H264 - high resolution
XviD - low resolution

Read more about Burning Car

THE PIRATE BAY
The Pirate Bay is currently on trial in Sweden. This is a trial not only against the people operating the website and the service it provides for millions of users worldwide.
It is a trial against a whole generation using the internet for what it is designed for; sharing knowledge, information and culture.
We learn, develop and evolve by copying. No laws, trials or convictions can stop that.

Info and updates on the trial:
http://trial.thepiratebay.org

DANISH USERS
Hvis du har problemer med at besøge The Pirate Bay, kan du få hjælp hos The Jesper Bay

BLACKOUT
Superflex + Simon Starling, Kunsthallen Brandts, Odense, Denmark http://www.brandts.dk

FLOODED McDONALD'S - At South London Gallery, London
Flooded McDonald's is a film work in which a convincing life-size replica of the interior of a McDonald's burger bar, without any customers or staff present, gradually floods with water. Furniture is lifted up by the water, trays of food and drinks start to float around, electrics short circuit and eventually the space becomes completely submerged. Read more

If value, then copy
Exhibition dates: 25 October - 22 November
Curated by Brian Butler
Extract from handout at ARTSPACE:

The SUPERFLEX exhibition at ARTSPACE seeks to challenge the excessive ownership and control of ideas and visual culture through copyright, trademarks and intellectual property legislation. What happens to the value of an invention, object, concept or design when it is copied? Is this value enhanced and furthered or simply dissolved?

Lawyer and founder of the Creative Commons Lawrence Lessig says: "There has never been a time in history when more of our "culture" was as "owned" as it is now. And yet there has never been a time when the concentration of power to control the uses of culture has been as unquestioningly accepted as it is now."

The SUPERFLEX projects at ARTSPACE question the function and outcome of controlling intellectual property, but also offer ways to free up the system and escape its strictures. These projects occupy the space between an original and a copy; an in-between mode of working that has the potential to disrupt convention. A sense of humour is also an important part of this approach, and it may be that this sensibility wields the most political agency where the collective understands the capacity to change things through the lightness of play.

If value, then copy
Superflex solo show:
Exhibition dates: 25 October - 22 November
Curated by Brian Butler
Extract from handout at ARTSPACE:

The SUPERFLEX exhibition at ARTSPACE seeks to challenge the excessive ownership and control of ideas and visual culture through copyright, trademarks and intellectual property legislation. What happens to the value of an invention, object, concept or design when it is copied? Is this value enhanced and furthered or simply dissolved?

Lawyer and founder of the Creative Commons Lawrence Lessig says: "There has never been a time in history when more of our "culture" was as "owned" as it is now. And yet there has never been a time when the concentration of power to control the uses of culture has been as unquestioningly accepted as it is now."

The SUPERFLEX projects at ARTSPACE question the function and outcome of controlling intellectual property, but also offer ways to free up the system and escape its strictures. These projects occupy the space between an original and a copy; an in-between mode of working that has the potential to disrupt convention. A sense of humour is also an important part of this approach, and it may be that this sensibility wields the most political agency where the collective understands the capacity to change things through the lightness of play.

Copy Light
Copy Light consists of a workshop where a series of famous and popular lamp designs are fabricated and hung in the main gallery. Images representing iconic lamps such as the Billberry A338, the VP globe, the Bubble and Opera suspension, are photocopied onto transparencies and attached to a basic cubic lighting structure. These new lights are constructed and hung in ARTSPACE's main gallery gradually filling and illuminating the space over the span of the exhibition. Copy Light is seeking the borders between a copy and its original. Through this manufacturing process a copy of a copy turns into something new: an original lamp that communicates the problems of the current copyright system.

Level 1, 300 Karangahape Road, Newton
PO Box 68418, Newton, Auckland, 1145 New Zealand
phone +64 9 3034965 fax +64 9 3661842
artspace@artspace.org.nz
http://www.artspace.org.nz

Superflex at Prospect 1, New Orleans
Exhibition dates: 1.November 2008 - 18.January

For Prospect.1, Superflex present a new work titled WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE, WE BOUGHT OUR HOUSE. Using a real-life incident involving friends of theirs, the subtext of the work is the impact that the post-Katrina flooding in New Orleans had on the world economy. Anticipating a slow down in the housing market as a result of the catastrophe, Danish banks briefly dropped their interest rates for new mortgages, enabling the friends of Superflex to purchase a house in Denmark at a lower cost.

Their work, a photograph is on display at the Lower 9th Ward Village in New Orleans, priced $20.000, equivalent to the amount that the couple saved. When sold, the money paid for the photograph will go towards purchasing construction materials ( such as plywood, lumber, roofing felt, paint, etc.) which will be displayed within the outlined area in the exhibition space. The materials will then be distributed by the Lower 9th Ward Village to families in the Neighborhood.

Address:
Lower 9th Ward Village:
1001 Charbonne Street
New Orleans,La 70043

For more info or to acquire the photograph,please contact Superflex or Prospect.1
Superflex: +45-28182070
Prospect.1: Robin Wallis Atkinson, +14794227305 or Ylva Rouse, +19172889494

For more info about Prospect 1 visit: http://www.prospectneworleans.org

SEPTEMBER 2008, BURNING CAR at The Sommerset house, london.
The exhibition "Wouldn't it be nice...Wishful thinking in art and design"
See lowres version of the film here:
Read more
www.somersethouse.org.uk

SEPTEMBER 2008, TAIPEI BIENNIAL, TAIWAN
www.taipeibiennial.org, www.freebeer.org

NOVEMBER 2008, PROCPECT 1 NEW ORLEANS, US
www.prospectneworleans.org

BOOK RELEASE: "Self-organisation/Counter-economic Strategies" available on The Pirate Bay

We have published the book and are distributing it using the BitTorrent technology via the world's largest distributor of cultural content aka The Pirate Bay The Pirate Bay which gives a unique freedom to distribute content freely and with no access restrictions due to bandwith, censorship or other economic and political obstacles.

Get it here: http://thepiratebay.org/tor/4151201

NEW FILM "BURNING CAR" AT DE VLEESHAL.

Read more

Exhibition: De Vleeshal, Middelburg

BERLIN BIENNIAL 2008: COLLECT TO WIN A TRIP TO ZANZIBAR