2009 | Video
Fairytales begin with conflict because we all begin our lives with conflict. We are all misfit for the world, and somehow we must fit in, fit in with other people, and thus we must invent or find the means through communication to satisfy as well as resolve conflicting desires and instincts.[1]
In Flooded McDonald’s, the Danish group Superflex presents an accurate model of a generic McDonald’s restaurant. Quiet and empty of clients or staff, it becomes the site of inexplicable horror. The daily objects set before us become disturbing because they circle a void. The restaurant branch is not closed: the lights are on, uncleared food trays are laying on tables, and the employee-of-the-month’s headshot hangs on the wall. Everything suggests that this branch is in business, yet it is deserted, and the absence foretells disaster. Little by little water starts to flow in, a seemingly mundane leak that turns out to be an entertaining documentation of a flood that ties together the cause and effect of environmental catastrophe. As the water level rises, different elements in the space turn into characters in a kind of disaster movie: furniture, French fries, a “wet floor” sign, and Ronald McDonald all play part in the apocalypse. What causes the disaster? Is it inevitable? What is our part in bringing about a state of impending catastrophe?
Superflex uses the instruments of the dominant apparatus to a surprising, strange effect, thus deploying them to undermine global order. The casual suddenly seems horrifying, and the rearrangement of elements expose their reliance on context to produce effect.
[1] Jack Zipes, The Irresistible Fairy Tale: The Cultural and Social History of a Genre”
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