Exhibited: “If You Don’t Like Art, Goodbye, Fuck Off, Go Home…”, Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Vestfossen, Norway, 2017 and Kristianstad Konsthall, Sweden 2019. Exhibited: “Cool, Calm and Collected” ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark, 2017–2018, ill. in the exhibition catalogue p. 159. Exhibited: Hämeenlinna Art Museum Tavastehus, Finland, 2018. Exhibited: “Art in Residence”, Hanken Svenska Handelshögskolan, Helsinki, Finland 2019. Provenance: Nils Stærk, Copenhagen (Inv. #SF 08 001.1). Provenance: NoCo - Nordic Contemporary Art Collection, Sweden.

The artist group – or collective – Superflex was formed in 1993 by Bjørnstjerne Reuter Christiansen, Jakob Fenger and Rasmus Nielsen. By actively using their art projects to aid people in the Third World, concepts such as humanism and benevolence appear to have been significant driving forces. The themes in their work are often of a social, economic and political nature. For example, the group has dealt with topics such as copyright, anxiety due to globalization, war and climate change in projects such as Guaraná Power and Free Beer, but their public displays and decorations of urban spaces – including Superkilen on Nørrebro, Copenhagen, – also reflect a specific set of ideas from the outset.

Many of the group's strategies originate from the world of business – such as branding and marketing – but are used from an artistic point of view, whereby they balance on the border between art and society. In this way, the legacy of the various avant-garde movements of the 20th century is reclaimed, though without the more dogmatic approach and self-perception. The identity of the artist is blurred, as the artwork is first and foremost a useful method or Tool to influence the social structures and point out injustices in the world. At the same time, art often arises in the meeting between artwork and spectator – or rather the occupant – a relational aesthetic based on interaction and interpersonal relationships.

It goes without saying that the products - the result of the group's interventions - are rarely targeted towards a commercial market. In many cases, the intangible artistic act itself constitutes the work of art. Therefore, we have been looking forward to presenting this work at the spring auction of contemporary art.

“If you don’t like Danmark. Goodbye. fuck off. Go home….”, it says in curved italics and literally bent in neon. The wording of the message comes from an anonymous and threatening letter that Superflex received in 2008. It was sent in protest against the artwork/poster “Foreigners, please don't let us alone with the Danes”, which was put on display in several places around Copenhagen. The group itself explains the idea behind the work: “The ignorance and the intense hatred – perhaps derived from fear and racism – which the misspelling and the words in the threatening letter expresses, versus the paradox that we are not foreigners but Danish citizens and therefore cannot be thrown out of the country, contains in our view an interesting tension and irony.” (“Cool, Calm and Collected”, exhibition catalogue from AroS, 2017–18, p. 158)

The neon sign, in all its striking simplicity, is a medium that directly and bluntly conveys a message – although in this case, it contains many layers of subtext. In addition to relating to the current immigration debate and commenting on Superflex’ own previous works, the artwork also relates historically to the pop art of the 60s and the birth of consumer culture.