SUPERFLEX

One of the highlights of Aarhus’s year as European Capital of Culture, the ARoS Triennial considers the relationship of art and nature throughout history.

The Danish art collective Superflex, known for its politically charged work, will take on the 2017 commission for the cavernous Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, the museum announced on Thursday.

They once flooded a McDonald's – on purpose.

Art world waits to see how collective known for highly political work will fill huge exhibition space in London

Today, a significant range of discursive thinking around biennales takes place without people physically seeing them, given the large number of biennales that are operative worldwide and the varying abilities people have to visit them.

In this heated political climate, art for art’s sake feels ever more like an indefensible position—maybe a guilty pleasure. Even within the relative privilege of the art establishment, activist ideals are increasingly surfacing, while political statements made by artists have become de rigeur. The perennial question faced by such artist-activists is whether or not the activities performed in the rarefied world of the art exhibition and symposium can truly make an impact in the so-called “real world.” To investigate this question, we take a look at recent activist actions by international artists and current exhibitions that aim to effect material change in the world.

You’ve probably never heard of the Danish city of Aarhus. Denmark’s second largest city—whose history began in the 8th century as a Viking settlement—is the European Capital of Culture for 2017. “Aarhus is a small city but it has so much to offer,” says Erlend Høyersten, director of ARoS Aarhus Art Museum. Before the official program for its year as the European Capital of Culture kicks off in the spring, Høyersten shared some of his highlights for the coming months—plus some exceptional spots to eat—with MutualArt. If you’re not already planning a visit, you probably will be.

Well, we’re here. With 2016 finally coming to a close, the art world has landed in Miami for another Art Basel bacchanal. But along with the carefree glamour of the galas and the private parties, trepidation hangs in the air—whether it’s acknowledged or not. With rising tides, both symbolic and real, increasingly threatening the art world’s private paradise, we are caught between anxiety and blissful disbelief, ruefully letting the champagne flow every December, until, one year, we might be waiting on Collins Avenue for our Ubers in waist-high water. Here is some art to see in Miami that reflects our anxious times, and the promise that we may overcome them.

19/10/2016 - VALENCIA. El col·lectiu danès Superflex arriba a Las Naves el divendres 21 d'octubre a les 19:00 hores amb The corrupt show, la seua primera exposició individual a Espanya. Les seues instal·lacions són reconegudes internacionalment i en elles conviden a qüestionar els models socials, polítics i econòmics actuals. Els polèmics mètodes de Superflex han rebut premis com el Civic Trust Award (2013) o el International Economic Development Council - Promotional awards (2012) però també han estat rebutjats per importants institucions. La instal·lació estarà fins al 8 de gener de 2017.

‘Superkilen, a new urban park in one of Copenhagen’s most diverse and socially challenged neighbourhoods, emphatically rejects this view with a powerful mixture of humour, history and hubris. (…) It fuses architecture, landscape and art in a truly inter-disciplinary manner, providing new opportunities for shared public engagement.’

Whether as an artist, collector, dealer, or curator, we all can probably recollect, with relish or regret, our first introduction to the art world. For Stefan von Bartha, however, his first memories of the art world are intertwined with his first memories of growing up. The son of Swiss art dealers Margareta and Miklos von Bartha, who founded their gallery in 1970 and operated it out of the family home, Stefan literally grew up in an art gallery. Starting out his career as a vintage design dealer at the age of 18, Stefan von Bartha now holds the directorship of von Bartha, where he has put new emphasis on contemporary art and staged memorable exhibitions. In the following exchange, we ask Stefan von Bartha about his personal collection of contemporary art, and what it was like growing up in the art world.

This important retrospective of the Danish collective Superflex, founded in 1993 by Jakob Fenger, Rasmus Nielsen and Bjørnstjerne Christiansen

Just a few hours before the January 22 opening reception of their exhibit Flooded McDonald’s at Peter Blum Chelsea, which will be on view till March 2

The Hirshhorn inaugurated a space dedicated to recent film and video work in fall 2005. In the five years since, Black Box

Danish collective Superflex has flooded a McDonald's, burned a car, and sold guarana-flavored soda in collaboration with Brazilian farmers.

As we say goodbye to 2014, we thought it might be nice to look back at what the year offered us in terms of art printed on paper and bound between two covers. Whether it’s a catalogue that allows us to enjoy an exhibition long after its doors have closed, or an in-depth investigation into the oeuvre of our favorite artists, these new books will surely be treasured for years to come.

Kunsthal Charlottenborg is proud to provide the setting for SUPERFLEX’ twentieth anniversary. The artist group’s complex and continually changing

The Hirshhorn inaugurated a space dedicated to recent film and video work in fall 2005. In the five years since, Black Box

Danish collective Superflex has flooded a McDonald's, burned a car, and sold guarana-flavored soda in collaboration with Brazilian farmers.

practice of Danish artist collective SUPERFLEX (Jakob Fenger, Rasmus Nielsen and Bjørnstjerne Christiansen) deals with the complex relationship

SUPERFLEX, the art collective from Copenhagen has a new series of hand painted banners, ‘Bankrupt Banks,’ that explore the corporate identities

The 42nd edition of Art Basel closed on Sunday, June 19, 2011. This year, the annual reunion of the international artworld attracted more than 65,000 artists, collectors, curators, and art lovers from around the globe,

El Anatsui’s ‘Broken Bridge II,’ 2012, remains on view on the High Line through this summer. (Photo by Austin Kennedy/High Line,

If the Gallery of Modern Art's latest exhibition, 21st Century: Art in the First Decade, is any indication, contemporary art is alive, well and deeply

“Bankrupt Banks” is the latest solo exhibition of Superflex, an artist group composed of three artists, which continues its exploration

The exhibition of the Danish artist group Superflex (Jakob Fenger, Rasmus Nielsen and Bjørnstjerne Christiansen) is titled The Corrupt Show and the

Among the decisive experiences of the 1990s, for me and many others, were the encounters with relational sociability in art.

When Mark Bradford built his ark, “Mithra” (2008), in the middle of New Orleans’ devastated Lower Ninth Ward, I don’t know if he envisioned it as a monument to futility or a symbolic cry for salvation but it reads as a little bit of both. Bradford’s ship sculpture is composed of large sheets of plywood and covered with advertisements that, even in New Orleans’s rather temperate climate, peeled and washed away...