An orange line of swings weaved through SUPERFLEX’ large-scale installation One Two Three Swing! Where swings are normally made for individual use, SUPERFLEX’ swings are designed for three people to swing together and experience the potential of collaborative participation.

With the large-scale installation One Two Three Swing! SUPERFLEX addressed what they experience as an apparent social apathy, an inability to act in the face of the political, environmental, and economic challenges in our times. In the large metal structure of orange swings winding through Hall 1, we as an audience could experience movement and the power of collective human actions.

In Hall 2, the state of apathy was represented by a large pendulum swinging widely across a carpet woven in the colours of Euro notes. We were invited to lie down and contemplate the fabric of economy and other forces governing our everyday lives while literally reflecting on and while being reflected in, the mirror-like pendulum.

One Two Three Swing! is both an aesthetic and a conceptual installation engaging with the power of play and the collaborative entities people can create together. The shared experience is embedded within us and may engender new collaborative activities and movements as we go through life. SUPERFLEX consider the collective force as a positive energy, potentially capable of changing the course of our lives and thus our future. The work may also trigger reflections on fundamental questions such as democracy, influence, and common citizenship – in that sense, SUPERFLEX’ swings are more than just play.

One Two Three Swing! was created in 2017 for the huge Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in London where, in a recognition of their work, SUPERFLEX were selected as the recipients of the Hyundai Commission.

The Danish artists’ collective SUPERFLEX was established in 1993 by Jakob Fenger (b.1968), Bjørnstjerne Reuter Christiansen (b.1969), and Rasmus Nielsen (b.1969). They live and work in Copenhagen. Since the early 1990s, SUPERFLEX have used their artistic practice as a tool with which to address social issues and actually refer to their projects as ‘tools’ capable of creating action and change. Their works often balance on the verge of being works of art and functional objects. They have, amongst much else, created Supergas (1996), a biogas facility in Africa, Superchannel (2000), their own TV channel, Superkilen (2012), a public park in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen, and Hospital Equipment (2017), a fully functional operating table used in hospitals in e.g. Gaza and Syria. SUPERFLEX have exhibited at museums throughout the world.