
Eat Art. Food in Art
The Swiss artist Dieter Roth began experimenting with foodstuffs in the 1960s. For his art he used materials such as cold cuts, chocolate, or spices like aniseed. Simultaneously his compatriot Daniel Spoerri designed what he referred to as “Tableau-piège” or “snare pictures.” In these assemblages he would fix or capture the remains of meals onto a support—a board or table top—and hang the whole piece on the wall like a painting. It was also Spoerri who coined the term “Eat Art:” an “edible art” that positioned itself at the interface between art and life.
Taking the collection focus of Dieter Roth’s work in the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart and the activities of the restaurant and Eat Art Gallery opened up by Daniel Spoerri in 1968 and 1970, the exhibition “Eat Art” documented the use of foodstuffs in art from the 1970s up to the present by showing objects, installations, and films.
Alongside Roth and Spoerri, artists such as Joseph Beuys, Roy Lichtenstein, Gordon Matta-Clark, and Arpad Dobriban deal with the existential and sensual aspects of food and cooking. But for younger artists such as Sonja Alhäuser, Anya Gallaccio, Elke Krystufek, and Shimabuku, the subject has lost none of its fascination: In their works they reflect on food intake as a means of creating identity as well as food production, its processing, and consumption in a globalized society.
Curators Magdalena Holzhey (Kunsthalle Düsseldorf), Ulrike Groos
In cooperation with Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
Sponsored by Kulturstiftung des Bundes
Further stations Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (November 28, 2009 – February 28, 2010), Galerie im Taxispalais Innsbruck (April 24 – July 4, 2010)
Catalog
Eating the Universe. Vom Essen in der Kunst /
Eating the Universe. Food in Art
Published by Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Galerie im Taxispalais Innsbruck and Kunstmuseum Stuttgart
With essays by Ulrike Groos, Magdalena Holzhey, Renate Buschmann, Beate Ermacora, Elke Krasny, Nikolai Wojtko and Christiane Boje
Hardcover, 312 pages with 191 images, German / English
DuMont Buchverlag
ISBN 978-3-8321-9240-2
29 € (Museum), 39,95 € (Bookstore)
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