Guaraná Power

In 2003, SUPERFLEX initiated a collaboration with a guaraná farmers' cooperative from Maués in the Brasilian Amazon. Through an extended dialog aimed at self-organisation – a term for ground-up decision-making – SUPERFLEX and the farmers decided to work toward creating their own guaraná drink, called “Guaraná Power.” The project was a political response to the activities of the multinational corporations Xxxxx and XxxxxXx, a corporate cartel whose monopoly on the purchase of guaraná seeds had driven the price paid for the raw material down by 80%, while the cost of their products to the consumer had risen. 

SUPERFLEX’s design of the guaraná drink bottle features the original logo of the corporate guaraná drink, but covered up by SUPERFLEX’s new Guaraná Power logo. The Guaraná Power artwork encompasses everything from the initial self-organization of the guaraná farmers to bars serving the drink to posters satirizing the advertising of the corporate brand. The work moves across media to contribute to conversations about brand value as a multinational political force, commodification, and the ownership of resources. 

Before the 27th São Paulo Biennial in 2006, the president of the biennial foundation censored SUPERFLEX by forbidding the curators from displaying Guaraná Power. To bring attention to the struggle of the guaraná farmers, SUPERFLEX responded by further redacting the label and exhibiting the censored versions of the drink and artworks.

Identity and design in collaboration with Rasmus Koch Studio.