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Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf – Eating the Universe. Food in Art

Eat Art, a term coined by Daniel Spoerri for art made with and involving food, has its institutionalized origins in Düsseldorf. Two years after opening his restaurant at the Burgplatz, the Swiss artist founded the Eat Art Gallery in 1970 and inspired numerous artists to produce various editions made of edible materials and food wastes. The exhibition “Eating the Universe” — a title created in the 1970's by Peter Kubelka, former professor for Film and Cooking at the Frankfurt Städelschule, for a TV-show about cooking as an artistic genre — takes generous stock of the phenomena from today's perspective and traces the original character of eat art from its origins until today. The exhibition demonstrates the continuing great attraction of the topic of food as a fundamental interface of art and life and its enormous relevance until the present day, especially against the backdrop of issues such as affluence and hunger, the anti-consumerism and anti-globalization movements, modern dietetics and cooking shows, health crazes and fast food.

The exhibit is structured into two sections. Based on select seminal works by Daniel Spoerri, as well as some of the most important multiples created for the Eat Art Gallery, the small historical part of the exhibition traces the origins of Eat Art and presents a reconstruction of the gallery and its activities. The main part of the exhibition features a wide range of more recent work dealing with the use of edible materials. They include sculptural takes on the aesthetic materiality of food, work that tests the boundaries of good taste and revulsion or that breeds organisms under the conditions of industrial food production. The kitchen as a creative and social production site is just as much an issue as the media impact and marketability of gastronomical performances. Some works reflects the behavioral patterns of our affluent society, consumer culture and corporeality, as well as ideals of beauty and eating disorders, other pieces play with the surreal, cryptic or grotesque aspects of the way we handle food in our everyday lives. The exhibit includes important international loans, as well as objects and performances developed especially for the project by selected artists.

List of Participating Artists:
Sonja Alhäuser, Arman, BBB Johannes Deimling, Christine Bernhard, Joseph Beuys, Michel Blazy, John Bock, Paul McCarthy, César, Arpad Dobriban, Dustin Ericksen/Mike Rogers, Lili Fischer, Thomas Feuerstein, Anya Gallacio, Carsten Höller, Christian Jankowski, Bernd Jansen, Elke Krystufek, Peter Kubelka, Richard Lindner, Gordon Matta-Clark, Antoni Miralda und Dorothee Selz, Tony Morgan, L.A. Raeven, Thomas Rentmeister, Zeger Reyers, Philip Ross, Dieter Roth, Mika Rottenberg, Judith Samen, Shimabuku, Daniel Spoerri, Jana Sterbak, André Thomkins, Rikrit Tiravanija, Günther Uecker, Ben Vautier, Andreas Wegner, Günther Weseler

Charlottenlund, Ordrupgaard – Edvard Munch & Denmark

The objective of the Munch and Denmark exhibition is to illustrate the importance of the relation with Denmark for Munch's artistic development. For Munch, Copenhagen was a bridge to Europe – a transit and a fugitive meeting place. During his passing through the modern and pulsating Copenhagen, he would establish contacts with Danish artists and poets, while the city’s exhibitions provided him with inspiration. The artists associated with Den Frie Udstilling (the Independent Exhibition) such as J.F. Willumsen, Johan Rohde and Paul Gauguin’s Danish wife, Mette Gauguin, welcomed Munch into their circle and became very important in introducing him to the art of Paul Gauguin. The poets Emanuel Goldstein and Helge Rode were also significant for Munch during these formative years where close friendships were formed with the Norwegian artist. Goldstein was especially important for Munch’s reception of Impressionism and symbolism. Munch also found peace and healing in Copenhagen during his years of crisis from the turn of the century to 1908.

In 1905, he settled in Taarbæk north of Copenhagen. The majority of the works produced here has never been explored, as for example pictures of the harbour at Taarbæk. The background and significance of these pictures will be examined. In August 1908, Munch again returned to Copenhagen, as his mental and physical health deteriorated and put him in a critical condition. Munch was admitted to the neurologist Dr. Daniel Jacobson’s clinic and was in treatment for seven months. Munch transformed his room at the clinic into a studio where several works were painted, such as “Self Portrait at the clinic” and his portraits of Dr. Daniel Jacobson as well as other major works. He also experimented with photography and he illustrated his poem, “Alpha and Omega” with eighteen lithographs. Munch’s manifold artistic production during this period will be analysed and shown at the exhibition. The importance of the period at the clinic will be investigated, also in relation to the importance of psychology at this time.

The curator of the exhibition is the internationally acclaimed Munch expert Dieter Buchhart in collaboration with Ordrupgaard. The exhibition will be on show at The Munch Museum from January - April 2010. Extensive studies of Munch's relationship with Denmark lie behind the exhibition. These studies will be presented at the exhibition and in a comprehensive and well illustrated catalogue in Danish and English. The exhibition will display pictures from museums and private collections, including works which have never previously been exhibited publicly.

Her Majesty Queen Sonja of Norway is the patron of the exhibition.

Picture: Edvard Munch, Både i Taarbæk, 1905