>> at its core is the turbine. the biggest and most challenging exhibition space in the world. each year, the prestigious

commission offers an artist a chance to take on this vast place and make it their own. this year it is the danish collective superflex. >> the turbine hall is like no other space in the world. whatever we do in the turbine hall every year gets the attention of the world. and i think superflex are the perfect artists for this moment. >> but just who are superflex? behind the name, the danish artists jakob fenger, rasmus nielsen, and bjornstjerne christiansen. they have been working together over two decades. they are superflex. famous for getting artists involved in artworks that turn convention on its head. ♪ >> i suppose the first thing to say is we work as a group. there are three very strong minds and a collective mind, which is superflex. >> it is an art collective, superflex is a company. >> they like this three-headed body, in a way. >> they have so much artwork it is difficult to keep track of it all.

>> we sell a lot of products like beer, soda, music labels. >> the dynamic of being a group demands you be diverse in your work. >> it is an open-ended unit based on a lot of collaborations. >> the world is fundamentally an exciting place and it's full of juicy, juicy, raw material. you just need to locate it and stitch it together in new ways. >> from the moment superflex got their breakthrough in the art world, people have been asking themselves, is this actually art? >> they have a very intelligent way of addressing political, global, challenging issues we are all facing. >> we are deeply interested in reality. it was like this from the very beginning. sometimes what was going on in art was not as interesting as what was going on elsewhere. it is still like that, quite

surprising what happens outside of the door. >> superflex did not have to wander far from their copenhagen studio to find inspiration for one of their best-known pieces. it is a 20-minute video work that features a full-scale replica of a mcdonald's restaurant slowly filling with water. >> it was a disaster feeling going on all over the world. hollywood was putting out all these end of the world, apocalyptic films. we thought we would make our version. our version is slightly more gentle than the average hollywood film. it basically took the brand of mcdonald's, which has that aura of consumption and trash. so, it was a very simple cocktail. >> you go into a space that is almost 1:1, and you slowly let things happen. it is unusual. [sound of flowing water]

>> basically, the work does not say anything directly. it just describes mcdonald's that is flooded. [sound of flowing water] >> of course, this could be also your wildest fantasy, your wildest desire. you want to see mcdonald's break down. it could be a naturally occurring event. it could be caused by man and climate change, a leak. it could be mcdonald's workers' sabotage. it is all in the eye of the beholder. >> then, it somehow, strangely turned out to be oddly prophetic. somebody put out a film on the

internet. there was a flooded mcdonald's in a museum in brisbane. with another phone, someone was kayaking through a real mcdonald's in brisbane. we saw these two images juxtaposed. it is a little scary. we have had a discussion, maybe we should stop making dark, dark movies because they become reality afterwards. >> i will have a hamburger. >> in 2009, in the aftermath of the economic crash, superflex were asked by channel 4 television in britain to make a series of short films. they were broadcast primetime across the nation just before its flagship evening news program. >> i would like to take you on a journey. and i would like you to close your eyes. so please, close your eyes.

>> we thought it was interesting to look at the process of psychosis. we engaged ourselves with a hypnotist. >> try to imagine you are in a market square in a little town. watch people. they are buying, people are selling, and people are happy. >> the idea of hypnotizing the whole english population in primetime, it could create a bit of chaos, from our perspective. people could forget their numbers for the credit card, what would happen to the financial systems? >> there are kinds of commodities that nobody wants. and people can't even get what they really need. >> the medium, it was really important how we implemented it. >> to try to go even deeper, and deeper, and deeper.

>> i think they were trying to investigate how the individual is psychologically transformed and shaped by the financial crisis and how it has to be healed in that process. >> in a little while, i will snap my fingers to wake you up. and then you will feel happy, you will feel fresh, and you will feel comfortable. [snaps fingers] >> it definitely succeeded as an artwork. ♪ ♪

>> danish artist group superflex were founded in 1993 in copenhagen where they still live and work today, creating artworks that have public involvement at their heart. in 2011, they took on an ambitious new project. based on their ideas about community empowerment, it flew in the face of danish design tradition. >> scandinavian minimalism, the history, everything is designed by one mind. by making this open-source situation where people can put their own ideas in, you make an even stronger image. >> superflex's new project in collaboration with an architect was called superkilen, a new

park along a stretch of narrow land in central copenhagen. >> it is part of the city, roiled by social tensions, difficulties, integration-wise. they turned the social dynamics upside down. >> they looked into who was living in nearby communities and consulted them on them what they would want from a new park. >> they actually identified 50 different countries of origin, and they invited these people to come up with proposals of what should be present in this piece of new land opening up. and people came up with a lot of different ideas, based on what you would find in their country of origin. different ideas, based on what

>> instead of just having one big canvas with no rules, set rules, conditions, for how to engage. red. ♪ black. ♪ a green area. objects from all over the world. that made it easier for people to propose. >> people would suggest objects for the park. we went with people from the area went to specific places of their desire to pick something for the park. >> superflex journeyed with local residents across the globe to track down objects that most reminded them of home. they call this process "participation extreme." from a bull in spain to a sound system in jamaica, to visiting a derelict site on the west bank, they traveled far and wide. >> [speaking foreign language]

>> so you see a bull from spain, you see soil from palestine, you find an american doughnut. it is half a mile long, you know, so a lot of people encounter that physically every day because it is so super-visible. it is up there in the public sphere of copenhagen. >> the people who use the park feel they own the park. they have achieved a sort of coownership of this park. >> this area in moscow -- it's kind of funny. no you have a lot of russian people having birthdays on the red square. >> everyone in copenhagen knows the square. you don't need to give an address or anything.

you look at a sign that's from japan or a bench from iran or a boxing ring from thailand, it becomes quite obvious what the idea is. >> you no longer see a split, fragmented society. you see people from all around the world, all kinds of backgrounds, next to each other, doing their thing, in a very harmonious and nice way. it is almost like a small fairy tale. that park works so well, it is a most too good to be true. >> but if you really want, we can also get into the stories and give you some background for each of them. maybe you do not have to give a -- you sit down on the bench and enjoy the sun. >> the neighborhood is so nice, everyone wants to be there, it will create some gentrification.

some groups will soon be pushed out and superflex are very much aware of these dynamics. they intervened, in the societal process. in this case, they changed it for the better. but the process is not over. that is why the work is ambiguous and open-ended. >> superflex forged a successful career as artists. but when they started out, it was all very different. >> if you had asked us 20 years ago, "are you an artist group?" we would have been at your throat, because we would say "we are a company." we thought at that time that was the most flexible organizational format. we could basically move into all kinds of territories, like fish in the water. >> so, the first thing they did was to work on the brand. many of the early works were about branding, developing visual and conceptual identity. >> there was a group show of

young, emerging danish artists. aeir work for that show was logo, a very fancy, big s. there was this provocative idea of artists branding themselves, adopting commercial strategies. >> they used branding to make three very different individuals into one untity. >> superflex called their artwork tools. they do not like the idea of art for art's sake. for them, art should have a purpose in the wider world. >> it is very much about investigating how art can become a tool for social empowerment, for personal empowerment, and a tool of change. >> we are challenging the object, this idea of iconic artwork that you should look at, look at from a distance, you

should not embrace it and so on -- we do not trust that. we think it is interesting and relevant we let others take on the tool and use it in different ways. >> they put their philosophy into practice when they began collaborating with african engineers to create an artwork that would have a practical use. >> you ask yourself the question, if you are living on an island alone and you could bring one art piece, a painting or a biogas, what would you take? you would burn the painting, get fire for maybe one night. that would be it. or with the biogas, you could have fire for quite some time. >> it should be able for any farmer to install the system themselves, so you won't need a technician to come and tell you

every time how to install the system. >> in the art world we do a lot of criticizing, pointing fingers, in a way. for artists, it has been a core part of what we do to do something in action, make something that makes a change somewhere else. >> the biogas units they created create enough gas for the lighting and cooking needs for a whole family. today, supergas units have been installed all around the world, from mexico to cambodia to zanzibar. the late 1990's heralded the widespread use of the internet and the start of a new era. superflex were intrigued by emerging communities sharing information online. >> we are the generation of the '90s. a radical new way of distributing music. we thought, maybe there is time for that kind of thinking, applied to the old world, beyond computers and software, which is a very strong medium to

communicate with. so we decided to make an open source beer where the recipe was free, the logo was free. we tried to somehow encourage people to copy this beer. we brewed it at the office and at the university of copenhagen. and then, people started copying it around the world. ♪ >> -- the powers that you

already have. >> it developed because people keep developing the recipe. they did not understand what open source meant, that you could share a recipe, recycle the ones you have, develop the recipe at the beginning, add on to it. >> it is very much about empowerment of people. this artwork reaches out in a different way than conventional artwork would do. >> it is also a way of distributing ideas. this whole idea of not only working within the gallery frame or the museum frame is very important. >> from a park made into art, from an art gallery made into a park, superflex are heading to london's tate modern to take on the vast turbine hall. ♪ >> superflex are in the process

of designing their turbine hall installation. they drew inspiration from tate modern's previous projects, as well as superkilen park. >> you have the pendulum. people can contemplate and go and be active with the swing and be part of setting into motion. these are swings that come from baghdad. you have a totally diverse group of people, like a young hipster family, some guys from pakistan. then you have totally veiled women. they all sit next to each other and its natural. unlike settings where you totally have to be together, we are forced, on the train, on the bus. at superkilen, it is a choice.

the same will be here. ♪ >> the turbine hall is like no other space in the world. whatever we do in the turbine hall every year gets the attention of the world. i think superflex are the perfect artists for this moment. >> superflex have built a giant, indoor playground, a system of three-person swings dominate the turbine hall. at the front of the hall, a huge, steel pendulum swings back and forth, under which visitors can lie down on the giant, multicolored carpet. >> it is designated as a street, and everyone can walk in and out. this part of urban space, it is a setting, restarting the engine

of the turbine hall through a collective energy. >> the idea being that people will come together, swing together, and start the collective action. ♪ >> this may be the closest thing you come to almost flying, or almost letting go. that is why children love swings, grown-ups love swings. we can see many others. through that, maybe hit the same pace and moment. see what happens with that force, that energy. >> you go back to the mold you had as a child -- we should never have stopped swinging.

one of the key things when you get on a swing, normally, you are by yourself and have your own joy and it is nice. but being in this joyful moment and having to share with someone else and synchronize with somebody else is extremely interesting to see. >> maybe by coming together, in dialogue and in activity we can address some of these big issues that divide us. >> in contrast to the swings, at the other end of the turbine hall, is a space for quiet contemplation. >> you get almost hypnotized, but it is also a little scary. above your head. you can sense the weight.

>> inevitably, the pendulum moves because the planet moves. but the people swinging influence through their gravity force the way the planet moves. in a way, you could say the swings are the human pendulum. the relationship between the people swinging, and the pendulum. there is a strong connection, you could say, the essence of the idea. >> we live in a hugely complex world. we're facing a lot of complex situation in geopolitics and everyday life. it is just overwhelming nature of modern society. what they have done with this work is addressed and made us think about all of those things on a variety of levels. >> the big focus on the moment on the individual, and individual being realized not just through media. we want to challenge that. we focus on the collective energy, the collective tension. >> i think it is a tremendously clever and complex idea.

but it is also elemental and something you can really connect with. it has a huge resonance not just for an art piece in a museum, but for wider society. >> from the moment superflex got their breakthrough in our world, people have been asking themselves, why are they artists? is this art? one thing to retain is their own replies to this debate. is it art? we do not care. if it works, if it is good, then we are happy. if it's art, it is less important. ♪ ♪

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