The subject of food in art and culture takes center stage when an exhibition curated by historian, art critic, and theorist Germano Celant opens at the Triennale on April 10. “‘Arts & Foods’ involves all media and art forms: painting and sculpture, video and photography, design and architecture, music and literature, even advertising,” says Celant of the ambitious presentation, mounted to coincide with Expo Milano 2015: Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life, the latest edition of the Universal Exhibition, held every five years in a different host city. From May 1 to October 31, more than 140 participating countries will showcase technologies aimed at providing healthy, safe, and sufficient food for everyone on the planet while preserving Earth’s equilibrium. The Triennale exhibition, Celant says, “traces the evolution of how we approach food and its preparation from 1851, the time the first Expo was held, in London, to the present day, through environments that illustrate both public and private dining spaces in which furniture, household appliances, utensils and works of art serve to create a narrative of great visual and sensorial impact.” Among the highlights are Subodh Gupta’s Dada, 2014, a utensil-clad stainless steel tree; and Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s painted fiberglass Leaning Fork with Meatball and Spaghetti II, 1994, pictured at left. The exhibition runs through November 1.
A version of this article appears in the April 2015 issue of Art+Auction.
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