Superflex, Flooded McDonalds,2009

Superflex video here

Flooded McDonald's is a short film work in which a convincing life-size replica of a McDonald's burger bar gradually floods with water. Furniture is lifted up by the water, trays of food and drinks start to float around, electrics short circuit and eventually the space is completely submerged. The film is devoid of exaggerated disaster-film drama and intentionally resists categorisation as a documentary or as an art film. Flooded McDonald's hints at the consumer-driven power and influence and impotence of large multinational companies in the face of climate change, questioning with whom ultimate responsibility lies. Flooded McDonalds was first exhibited at South London Gallery in 2009.

Extract from The South London Gallery press release:

 The South London Gallery presents a new film work by Danish collective SUPERFLEX entitled Flooded McDonald's. Despite their international track record over the past 15 years, this will be their first solo show in London. From large-scale installations, through to long-term process-based projects and, more recently, films, SUPERFLEX's work is founded in economic and political awareness. They create works inspired by the points where definitions and possibilities of art become blurred. Flooded McDonald's is a new film work in which a convincing life-size replica of the interior of a McDonalds burger bar, without any customers or staff present, gradually floods with water. Furniture is lifted up by the water, trays of food and drinks start to float around, electrics short circuit and eventually the space becomes completely submerged.

Flooded McDonald's is SUPERFLEX's second film, the first, entitled Burning Car, 2008, made in the wake of the civil unrest in Paris and Copenhagen in 2007, shows a dead-pan observation of a car going up in flames. Both films avoid the high drama of disaster movies, but never quite echo a documentary style, making their position within established frameworks of cinematic genres or of artists' films intentionally ambiguous. Without being didactic, Flooded McDonald's hints at the consumer-driven power and influence, but also impotence, of large multinationals in the face of climate change. Without pointing the finger at anyone, the film questions with whom ultimate responsibility lies.

Flooded McDonald's is a film by SUPERFLEX.

Produced by Propeller Group (Ho Chi Minh City) in association with Matching Studio (Bangkok) and co-produced by South London Gallery (London), Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, (Humlebæk, Denmark) and Oriel Mostyn Gallery (Llandudno, Wales) with support from the Danish Film Institute.

The exhibition is supported by the Danish Arts Council's Committee for International Visual Art.