Toolbox for art
Works by the Danish group Superflex, known for their social innovations in the art world, will be seen as part of the Process exhibition on Fifth Floor in Kiasma.
A book was published recently on the art of Superflex. Its title, chosen by the group, is Tools. That someone would choose to call their art 'tools' at least tells us that the good old maxim 'art for art's sake' does not apply in this case. The most puritanical of modernist ideals proscribed contact with any other area or activity except art itself. Art had to be independent, existing in its own world, and by no means should its function be to tell stories or be a tool for social progress.
The art of Superflex is indeed totally at variance with the ideals of Modernism. The group's projects function more like social interventions or channels for social debate than anything else. Indeed, they may be easier to interpret in terms of cultural or social activism than art. Supergas, for example, is a project that produces gas from biological waste for household use, and may just as well be understood as development cooperation. It brings ecological and inexpensive energy production, that is independent of large companies or networks, to people living in reduced circumstances. In the art world, on the other hand, the development, production and distribution of a one-family gas energy plant may seem strange at first. The working assembly has required a great deal of engineering expertise, and Superflex actually established a company for its production. Thus, Superflex operates both in the sphere of technology and economy, but presents its activities in venues for art.
Information technology and the Internet are another favourite environment for Superflex. Superchannel is a tool that Superflex offers for groups and communities to bring out, via the Internet, their own ideas and generate discussion about topics that interest them. By offering an open channel for publishing and an interactive environment for discussion, Superflex broadens the channels for participation, that are owned by closed circles and are governed by economic interests, for use by groups that could otherwise become easily marginalised from social debate.
An even sharper intervention into the structures and practices of political discussion and decision-making is Karlskrona 2, a project that allows the inhabitants of a Swedish town to build alternative models and solutions for their town in a virtual version of Karlskrona. What the effects of these activities on the real Karlskrona are depends on many things, such as who are the people who participate in the project and what attitude the town council takes towards it. The greatest effect may, however, be in the mindset that Karlskrona 2 enables to emerge, and in the questions it raises: whose voice should be heard when the town's affairs are decided upon, and what are the tools new technology can offer towards that end. Such discussions are increasingly waged in the fields of political and social participation - but they are rarer in the field of art.
INTERVENTION BY ART
The next logical question is, of course: What is the function of the museum and the art community in this context? The three members of Superflex are all graduate artists and they place their activities in the art world. The world of contemporary art admittedly embraces quite a bit more than just the mediums traditionally taught in art academies. Perhaps the art context should be seen instead as the cultivation of a certain type of thinking, rather than an activity committed to certain techniques or art forms. In the case of Superflex and other artists operating in comparable ways, the art world perhaps allows experimenting with modes of activity and thought that would not be allowed in other environments. Art is an environment where it is possible to see and think about the world in new ways and the museum environment can be seen as a venue for reflecting upon these ideas and generating wider discussion.
Of course, Superflex is not alone nor the only art actor of its kind. Community art and artistic projects and interventions designed to provoke public discussion are part of contemporary art and they all have their own history. Such activities are based on a conception of art where art is not seen as objects, but instead as a catalyst for processes and an enabler of things. Also the artist's role is changed thereby, and the activities are often collective. Some artists' work is the result of the activities and participation of several people. In the case of Superflex, art can be both created in collaboration with outside persons, and be something that is given for other people to use and functions as a channel for other people's activities. Incorporating an element for activating the audience/users, it introduces new dimensions to the question, who is the author of the work and who is the viewer, or user.
BUT IS IT ART?
Another potential question raised by such art is, what actually constitutes a finished work of art, and according to what criteria it should be judged. What is Superflex's art? Is the artwork the idea of an Internet channel, its practical implementation, or the various applications that arise when various people use it? And what is a successful piece: should we appraise the result aesthetically, or in terms of some moral values or their social effectiveness? Debates about what art is and what it is not have raged throughout the history of art, and finding a definite answer is perhaps not even interesting, whereas the question what criteria can be used to analyse projects like Superflex's, opens up much more exciting views.
The criteria for success can be quite different and even contradictory, depending on the viewpoint. If the objective of the project is social activism and effectiveness, we must try to see whom and how the project benefits, and whose participation is enhanced by it. In the economic-technological world, projects are instead regarded in terms of their functionality and productivity. The art world, however, can consider Superflex's activities interesting in that they expand the importance and sphere of art. For Superflex, the group itself is one tool or framework for developing their ideas as art. Those who wish to find the moral of such activity should ask the artists themselves about their motives and - if one is not satisfied with good intentions justifying practically any result - combine that information with observed events in the real world. At least the information produced and collected by the artists themselves is convincing and profuse.
OWN RULES
The possibility of social critique or even change is a broad issue itself. Art can have an impact, even if it does not change the world in any concrete way. On the other hand, from the viewpoint of social activism, it is not uncontested what sort of measures have an impact and how they affect, say, economic power relations. Nor is it obvious whether things can be better improved by outside intervention or by acting from within, subverting the functional principles of systems to one's own ends. Superflex seems to operate in the latter mode, searching for constructive alternatives. Instead of using boycotts or demonstrations to attack from the outside, Superflex seems to accommodate itself to the worlds of business and technology and to play with their tools. But the group plays 'incorrectly', following its own rules instead of adhering to the rule of maximising profit, for example. To act in society, Superflex uses - perhaps paradoxically - the (relative) autonomy of art proclaimed by modernism.
Kaija Kaitavuori
Head of Education, Kiasma
