If Value, Then Copy
From the COPYSHOP website…
COPYSHOP is a place where you can photocopy everything from text to images. We use this name for a shop and information forum which will investigate the phenomena of copying.
In COPYSHOP you will find products that challenges intellectual property. It can be modified originals, improved copies, political anti-brands. – or a SUPERCOPY as the new original.
COPYSHOP will discuss the control of value in the same place where it is produced and distributed: the market. As an active player the function of COPYSHOP will be as an ordinary shop.
Furthermore, COPYSHOP will function as a gathering point and network for a diverse group who share a critical view on intellectual property.
This Copenhagen-based project was the brainchild of Danish artists Superflex. As far as I can tell, COPYSHOP is closed as is it’s only franchised branch, which was located in one of America’s printmaking hubs, Knoxville, TN.
Superflex consists of Jakob Fenger, Rasmus Nielsen, and Bjonstjerne Christiansen. They’ve been working together “since 1993 on a series of projects related to economic forces, democratic production conditions, and self-organisation.” They describe their projects “as proposals that invite people to actively participate in and communicate the development of experimental models that alter the prevailing economic production conditions.”
You may know Superflex from some of their past projects. Flooded McDonald’s is a stand-out. It’s all in the title, the group reconstructed a life-size replica of a McDonald’s restaurant and then proceeded to flood it.
Bookmark / Share / Print
For one year Superflex also set up a Copy Shop in Knoxville, Tennessee. See: http://copy-shop.org/knoxville/
What a cool project. Will someone please come and flood my Kinkos and replace it with a COPYSHOP?
It seems there was a similar project in Kansas City a few years ago where they installed a bunch of copiers and invited the public to create the exhibit; I think the good folks at the Kansas City Art Institute where somehow responsible.
Thanks, Beauvais. I did include a link to the Knoxville Copyshop website in the body of the text but I didn’t spell it out explicitly. Would love to hear more about the project from some one closer to it.