A bottle of non-alcoholic SUPERFLEX vodka
Superflex, the well-known Danish art group, participated in the KUMU opening exhibition titled Shift Scale in 2006 with its non-alcoholic vodka project. Non-alcoholic vodka tastes like vodka but does not contain alcohol. The work seems to comment on uniqueness being lost in globalization – the need to comply with the demands and requirements of international markets and a struggle for survival amongst existing products sets a certain framework, of which being outside of is not beneficial to the product. Non-alcoholic vodka is a good example of a product being outside of said framework.
Hanno Soans, the curator of contemporary art in KUMU at the time and one of the organizers of the exhibition, acquired one of the bottles at the exhibition and donated it to the EKKM collection on the condition that a member of the management board of EKKM, Marco Laimre gets a bottle of alcohol free beer at the NOKU club without paying for it. The deal is yet to be completed, as Laimre has not been able to avoid paying at the bar.
Work’s description on the SUPERFLEX website.
“Non Alcoholic Vodka was first presented in the exhibition Shiftscale – Sculpture at the Extended Field in 2006 at the Kumu Art Museum, Tallin – a museum neighbouring one of the largest Russian ghettos in the city. More than 25 % of the Estonian population are Russians of which a majority are isolated from the rest of society because of cultural differences: they do not speak the language, are less educated, have drinking problems etc. For the opening of the exhibition a non-alcoholic vodka bar was serving the drink.”