Superflex is burning the Danish flag at international Art fair
At Art Basel in Switzerland Superflex is presenting a new work "Rebranding Denmark". The Work is a LED-display sign in movement - changing as the flames are burning the Danish flag.
The work is shown with Gallery Nils Staerk Contemporary Art at the Fair (The gallery is situated at hall 2.1, number X6)
Work info:
Title: Rebranding Denmark
Material: LED/display sign
Dimensions: 115 x 153 cm
Rebranding Denmark
"Denmark subsequently appears as the small country that the big international players unreasonably attempted to whip into line. That is an image worth millions to the brand Denmark. If I was a member of the ministry of foreign affairs I would print huge adds in the leading medias in the world with the words: We want to thank our allies - buy Danish."
- Tyler Brule, founder of the magazine Wallpaper, 2006
"There is something rotten in the state of Denmark"
- Shakespeare.
Rebranding Denmark has its starting point in the political crisis from the beginning of the year 2006 named The Muhammad cartoon Crisis. Denmark was condemned by the international Islamic world due to the publication of 12 cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper. The contempt resulted in large demonstrations and attacks on Danish Embassies. Burning the Danish flag also became a symbol of the revolt.
According to the international trend-guru Tyler Brule, Denmark subsequently appears as the small country that the big international players unreasonably attempted to whip into line. That is an image worth millions to the brand Denmark.
Superflex's piece Rebranding Denmark is a critical comment to the idea of rebranding Denmark. The Work is a LED-display sign in movement - changing as the flames are burning the Danish flag.
Superflex's Rebranding Denmark deals with displacement and comments on the paradoxical shift in value of signal and the seemingly arbitrary relationship between value and intention in the mechanisms of branding.
Flag burning has traditionally been associated with hatred of a nation. During the cartoon crisis, the burning of the Danish flag became connoted with several other things also. It became an expression of the Danish government's lack of ability to navigate in a globalized world. Furthermore, it symbolized the Danes' unconditionally support of freedom of expression. But it also became a symbol of a nation that seems incapable of dealing with its changing demography, hence it lack of inclusion of it's religious, racial and ethnic minorities.
Superflex's Rebranding Denmark wants to challenge the Danish nation's self image as a fairy tale country and asks: Is there something rotten in the state of Denmark?