"Modern Times, Forever"

Posted January 31, 2012 by LA Weekly | Events in Lifestyle

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6150 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90048

“Modern Times, Forever”

By Catherine Wagley

The Danish collective SUPERFLEX built a life-size McDonald’s replica, then flooded it to foreshadow capitalism’s doom for the 21-minute film it made in 2009. The collective’s new exhibition, right across from LACMA at 1301 PE, has a much subtler feel than the McDonald’s flood, with framed posters downstairs and tastefully designed black “safety” lamps hung upstairs. But the quiet, slow-moving film that plays out on an upstairs wall is actually fairly aggressive. Entitled Modern Times, Forever – at 240 hours long, it’s the longest film ever made, the collective claims — it simulates the demolition of Stora Enso, a massive modernist office building in Helsinki. Originally, the film played for its 10-day duration on the street in front of its subject, so you could see modernism persisting and disintegrating at the same time. 6150 Wilshire Blvd.; through March 3. (323) 938-5822, 1301pe.com.