Exhibition Redcat LA: Superflex/ Guarana Power

Begin forwarded message:

> From: [email protected]
> Date: April 13, 2004 2:17:40 AM EDT
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Exhibition Redcat LA: Superflex/ Guarana Power
>
> April 14-May 16, 2004
>
> SUPERFLEX/ SELF-ORGANISE/ GUARANA POWER
>
> REDCAT
> 631 W. 2nd Street
> Los Angeles, California 90012
> Opening Reception April 14, 6-9 pm
> Closing Reception May 15, 7-10 pm
>
> http://www.superflex.net/redcat/
>
> http://redcat.org/gallery/current.html
>
>
>
> Los Angeles, March 29 – With a diverse practice that engages art,
> design and
> economic structures of dependency, Superflex challenges the role of
> artists
> in contemporary society. For this installation, the Copenhagen-based
> artists
> collective activates REDCAT with the independent manufacture of the
> natural
> soda, GUARANA POWER and a daily cinema featuring models of
> self-organization.
>
> GUARANA POWER is a soft drink developed by a farming cooperative in
> Maues,
> Brazil in collaboration with Superflex. The drink contains guarana, a=

> plant
> native to the Amazon whose berries have long been harvested by
> indigenous
> communities for their medicinal and energy-giving properties.
> Recently, Maues
> guarana farmers have formed the cooperative COAIMA to challenge the
> activities of multinational corporations whose sugary, diluted energy
> drinks
> have corrupted the physical and symbolic properties of the plant.
> These same
> corporations hold a monopoly on the purchase of the raw material,
> which has
> forced the price of guarana down eighty percent, thereby undermining
> the
> sustainability of entire communities.
>
> In 2003, Superflex was invited to collaborate with COAIMA by way of
> workshops
> to discuss new industrial and economic approaches to the situation.
> Together
> they came up with a variety of ideas including variations on existing
> products such as a popular energy drink, Antarctica. This became the
> model
> for a pirated or SUPERCOPY product called GUARANA POWER. GUARANA POWE=
R
> is one
> attempt to disrupt the current economic equation of corporate
> dominance by
> appropriating the strategies of multinational capital, here global
> branding,
> in order to reclaim the integrity of local agriculture and industry.
> Turning
> the gallery into an independent bottling plant, SELF-ORGANISE/GUARANA=

> POWER
> offers an example of how local economies can actively respond to the
> stranglehold of multinational corporations.
>
> During SELF-ORGANISE/GUARANA POWER, Superflex will activate REDCAT with
> various presentations including a series of screenings focused on acts
> of
> self-organization. The members of Superflex - Rasmus Nielsen, Jakob
> Fenger
> and Bjornstjerne Christiansen - are visiting faculty in the School of=

> Art at
> the California Institute of the Arts for the Spring 2004 semester.
>
> Since its inception in the early 1990s, Superflex has developed a
> complex
> practice that brings together art, design, and commerce to challenge
> economic
> structures of dependency. Working in- and outside the physical
> location of
> the exhibition space, Superflex reinterprets the role of artists in
> contemporary society through professional collaborations and unusual
> types of
> activation of their audience. At the core of their practice is the
> development of what they call 'tools