Superflex (stylised as SUPERFLEX) is a Danishartist collective founded in Copenhagen in 1993 by Jakob Fenger, Rasmus Nielsen and Bjørnstjerne Christiansen. Its work ranges from films and public installations to projects involving energy production, trade and communication. The group frequently collaborates with people outside the art world, including engineers, farmers, designers and local communities.
Superflex calls many of its projects tools, a term for works that others can use, adapt or help produce. Early examples include Supergas, a biogas system developed for rural households, and Guaraná Power (2003), a soft drink produced with Brazilian guarana farmers. Other projects have dealt with copyright, the circulation of goods and the rules governing who may copy or sell them.
The collective's public works include Superkilen (2012), a Copenhagen park developed with Bjarke Ingels Group and Topotek 1, and One Two Three Swing! (2017), an installation of linked swings and a large pendulum at Tate Modern. More recent projects have turned towards rising sea levels, marine habitats and the place of other species in human-built environments.
History
Superflex's early projects frequently borrowed the language and methods of business. In The Campaign (1994), the group approached companies in southern Jutland with fictitious product presentations. Other projects involved actual technical development. Supergas (1996–1997) explored small-scale biogas production, with a system tested in Tanzania in 1997. In 1999, the group launched Superchannel, an internet television project through which participating communities could produce their own programmes.
During the 2000s, the collective made works involving commercial products, alternative brands and the copying of protected designs. Projects such as Copyshop (2005) and Copy Right (2006) continued this interest in reproduction and ownership. The group also produced films, including Flooded McDonald's (2009).
In December 2013, Kunsthal Charlottenborg in Copenhagen opened a retrospective marking the collective's twentieth anniversary. Rather than arranging a single survey, Superflex invited eight curators or curatorial teams to make separate exhibitions from its body of work. The resulting show, Working Title: A Retrospective Curated by XXXXXXXXX, ran until February 2014.
The collective's later projects have included large-scale public installations. In 2017, Superflex presented One Two Three Swing! at Tate Modern in London.
In 2021, Interspecies Assembly combined a sculpture installation in Central Park with a projection of the film Vertical Migration onto the United Nations Secretariat Building. The project coincided with the United Nations General Assembly.
Artistic approach
Some projects are developed with the people expected to use them. Their involvement can include testing, operating or modifying a product or system after its initial presentation.
Copyright and ownership are recurring subjects in its work. For Copy Right, Superflex modified commercially produced imitations of Arne Jacobsen's Ant Chair to make them resemble the original design more closely. A biogas-powered adaptation of Poul Henningsen's PH5 lamp drew objections from the manufacturer Louis Poulsen. The group has also used open licences and non-exclusive agreements for some of its own works, including films.
Critics have questioned how far these projects change the economic practices they address, particularly when the works themselves circulate through galleries and the art market. The political aims of participatory installations have also met with scepticism. One Two Three Swing! at Tate Modern, for example, was praised for its playfulness but questioned for its political impact.
Superflex has made several films built around a single, extended event. In Flooded McDonald's (2009), a life-size replica of a McDonald's restaurant slowly fills with water. Modern Times Forever (2011) imagines the decay of a building designed by Alvar Aalto over 240 hours. It was screened outdoors in Helsinki, with the actual building visible behind the screen.
Several projects have brought familiar objects into public spaces. Power Toilets (2010) reproduced the lavatories used by members of the United Nations Security Council as a functioning public toilet in Heerhugowaard, the Netherlands. For Superkilen (2012), developed with Bjarke Ingels Group and Topotek 1, residents of Copenhagen's Nørrebro district helped select benches, signs, playground equipment and other objects associated with places around the world. The park is divided into red, black and green sections.
Recent projects have also addressed marine life. Dive-In (2019) connected a drive-in cinema in California's Coachella Valley with an underwater structure off the Pacific coast, where fish were filmed occupying the installation. In Copenhagen Harbour, sculptures from As Close As We Get (2022) extend below the waterline, where their surfaces provide potential habitats for seaweed and fish. For All That We Know (2021), Superflex installed six oversized sculptures of fruits and vegetables outside Herlev Hospital in Denmark.
Selected publications
Tools. Edited by Barbara Steiner. Cologne: Walther König, 2003. ISBN3-88375-612-1.
Self-Organisation/Counter-Economic Strategies. Edited by Will Bradley, Mika Hannula, Cristina Ricupero and Superflex. Sternberg Press, 2006. ISBN1-933128-13-5.
SUPERFLEX: The Corrupt Show and the Speculative Machine. Edited by Patrick Charpenel and Daniel McClean. Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo, 2013. ISBN978-607-95845-4-2.
Superkilen: A Project by BIG, Topotek 1 and Superflex. Edited by Barbara Steiner. Arvinius + Orfeus Publishing, 2013. ISBN978-91-87543-02-9.
Superflex: An Artist with 6 Legs: 253 Works, 20 Years, 8 Curators, 1 Exhibition. Edited by Pernille Albrethsen. Kunsthal Charlottenborg, 2013. ISBN978-87-88944-97-6.
↑ProgramArchived 2015-07-03 at the Wayback Machine on taipeibiennial.org "Workshop: "FREE BEER factory", Superflex Sep.7, Tue.1500-1700, Venue: GOOGLE OFFICE, TFAM, Superflex inaugurates their work for TB10 with a free workshop. Learn to brew your own beer."
12345Hansen, Kamma Overgaard. "SUPERFLEX". Lex (in Danish). Retrieved 2026-10-11.
