Hyundai Commission

SUPERFLEX, the artist collective for the third annual Hyundai Commission, was founded in 1993 by Danish artists Bjørnstjerne Christiansen, Jakob Fenger and Rasmus Nielsen. SUPERFLEX is internationally recognized for its projects and exhibitions presented across Europe, America and Asia. The collective challenges the conventional limitations and expectations of art and exhibition spaces through diverse and complex practices. By referring to its works as “tools” instead of art works or pieces, the group places the projects in an active context exploring alternative models for the creation, dissemination, and maintenance of social and economic organization.

SUPERFLEX examines social and economic issues from migration to alternative energy production and from the power of global capital to the regulation of intellectual property, encouraging active engagement in the social and cultural concerns of our time. These efforts by SUPERFLEX are well reflected in <Hospital Equipment (2014)>, which is an installation of surgical equipment dispatched directly from gallery to conflict zone. Setting the scene of a life and death situation inside the gallery space, the work highlights our divergent reaction to the media and humanitarian fundraising campaigns involving conflicts of war. <Hospital Equipment> also challenges the concept of contemporary art practice as the operating equipment will be shipped directly to a selected hospital in a conflict zone and only the photograph will remain with who purchases the work. SUPERFLEX, who poses timely questions as artists on our increasingly complex society, raise further questions for us in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. <Hyundai Commission: SUPERFLEX – One Two Three Swing!> is on view until 2 April 2018 at Tate Modern.

Philippe Parreno, the artist of the Hyundai Commission 2016, crosses over various media such as sculpture, film, video, sound, performance, and information technology. Currently residing in Paris, Parreno is actively engaging in the global art scene, distinguishing himself from the contemporary artists while presenting diversified works. The artist goes further from installing a single objet in an exhibition space, occupying the space while regarding the exhibition as one coherent whole. He also explores vague areas, raising questions on the border between reality and fiction, and stirring and combining the factual and imaginary worlds. Parreno has collaborated with many visual artists as well as many musicians, architects, scientists and writers, and continues the tradition of the avant-garde artist engaged with many cultural disciplines.

Parreno invites the viewers to the rapid reevaluation of the essence of reality, memories, and the flow of time and duration, aiming to expand the perception on the continuity of time. He is an artist who continues to study and redefine direct and physical experiences of artworks and exhibition spaces. One of his well-known works is <Zidane: a 21st Century Portrait> (2006), a full-length film that he co-produced with Douglas Gordon. He drew attention once again with his new large-scale work, <H{N)Y P N(Y}OSIS> (2015), installed at the Park Avenue Armory, staging a journey to dramatic senses by merging film, light, sound, and performance. Having redefined the way of participating and experiencing art through his entire career, Parreno provided another opportunity for the audience to be immersed in the artwork and the space through the Hyundai Commission. Hyundai Commission 2016 by Parreno, which transformed the Turbine Hall, was on view from 4 October 2016 until 2 April 2017.