SUPERFLEX: You Can't Eat Identity
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SUPERFLEX
You Can't Eat IdentityNovember 14, 2015 – January 16, 2016
Ny Carlsberg vej 68, CopenhagenNils Stærk presents YOU CAN’T EAT IDENTITY, a solo exhibition by Superflex.
In the main gallery the video installation European Union Mayotte will be shown. The film was shot on the island Anjouan, part of the island country of Comoros, located in the Indian Ocean north of Madagascar. Only 70 kilometres away is the other island Mayotte. Contrary to Anjouan and the rest of the Comoros Mayotte chose to stay affiliated with France when the Comoros became an independent country in 1975. In 2011, Mayotte became a so-called French overseas department, which equalled the island with France’s other departments and regions. In 2014 the EU acknowledged Mayotte as a part of the union making it EU’s outermost region. Therefore there is a dangerous illegal trafficing of people looking to get to Mayotte and thereby France and the EU for various reasons. Many thousands have not survived the few kilometres of travel.
In the film we follow the production of a small fiberglass boat meant for fishing. The boats produced on Anjouan are though often used to sail to Mayotte, a journey which can be dangerous both because of weather conditions and the patrolling coast guard around Mayotte.
Superflex went for the first time to Mayotte in 2014. The French State had commissioned them to produce a work for the local hospital on the isalnd.
In the gallery’s second room 7 paintings are shown. They all bear the same text : YOU CAN’T EAT IDENTITY each based on one of the seven main colors of the Euro notes.
Thematically migration is the main subject of the exhibition. The boat and the horizon also play a part as images of wanderlust and dreams of another life. The exhibition places itself in Superflex’s general practice where the aesthetic product is based upon a very specific socio-economic situation, which at the same time asks some universal questions about dreaming of something else.
Superflex has furthermore made a filmversion about the subject with the title KWASSA KWASSA. It was shown earlier this year as part of Beaufort – Beyond Borders in Belgium. The film is also included in the CPH:DOX 2015 programme and is shortlisted for the competition New:Vision. In 2016 it will be shown at the 6th Marrakech Biennale curated by Reem Fadda and as part of Cinéma du Réel, International Documentary Film Festival in Paris in March 2016.
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