FLOODED MCDONALD’S

TheCube Project Space is proud to present Flooded McDonald’s by the Danish artist trio SUPERFLEX from May 12 to June 17, 2012. It is the fourth installment of a series of exhibitions on the theme Re-envisioning Society, following Jao Chia-en’s REM Sleep, Chang Chien-chi’s Escape from North Korea and Venezuela from Below with Oliver Ressler and Dario Azzellini.

This curatorial project aims at manifesting and reflecting on the characteristics of contemporary life, as well as individual or collective life experiences and their changes, in order to construct a new vision and imagination of the contemporary society we are in. In particular, in view of the present “society of the spectacle” produced as a result of the power distribution of neo-liberalism, it explores how we can discover the genuine relationships between people, between man and place and between places hidden behind the “spectacle” with a critical eye.

While the previous exhibition “Venezuela From Below” explores the aggression of the neo-liberal multinational market economy against Latin America, and the resistance put up by the grass-roots Venezuelans over the past decade, “Flooded McDonald’s” reflects on the contemporary consumer society from another perspective.

About Flooded McDonald’s

The 21-minute video work Flooded McDonald’s was shot in a convincing replica of the interior of a McDonald’s fast food restaurant. Empty of customers or staff, the restaurant is gradually flooded with water, causing tables and chairs and trays of food and drinks to float around and leading to a short circuit. Finally, the whole restaurant is completely submerged. This work is not aimed at critiquing a particular target. As a representative of international brand names, McDonald’s is easily recognizable to all. By placing a globalized consumption icon into the scenario of a disaster movie, this film alludes to the consequences of mass consumption, and touches on issues such as global warming and natural disasters brought about by high economic growth.

The theme and form of Flooded McDonald’s echo the work The Financial Crisis (2009) presented by SUPERFLEX at TheCube Project Space in 2010. Through the deep voice of a hypnotist, the latter describes people’s mental state, such as fear, anxiety and frustration, after the collapse of the economy. In Flooded McDonald’s, the disaster is presented directly with visual images. Both works compel viewers to take a good look at the modern society built on the economy and acts of consumption, with a worrying future that people are reluctant to face.

About SUPERFLEX

Founded in 1993, the Danish art collective SUPERFLEX is made up of three members, Jakob Fenger, Rasmus Nielsen and Bjørnstjerne Christiansen. Their projects deal with issues of economic markets, democratic production conditions, self-organization, and environmentalism. Highlighting the hidden rules and operations of capitalist economic activities, they use different forms and means to convert and manifest these invisible phenomena in various processes and actions.

SUPERFLEX has participated in biennials in Berlin (2001), Venice (2003), Istanbul (2005), São Paulo (2006), Taipei (2008, 2010), Shanghai (2010) and Singapore (2011). Recent exhibitions and activities include ” Traversing the Fantasy” (2010) at TheCube Project Space of Taipei, “It’s the Political Economy, Stupid” (2011) at the Open Space in Vienna, “Living as Form”(2011) at Creative Time in New York and “Print/Out”(2012) at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

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