The Politics and Pleasures of Food

Life revolves around the food. Eating is an essential part of every human culture, an expression of ideologies and social relationships, the state of development and decline of a civilisation. The food scandals in recent years, bio-piracy and genetically engineered foods demonstrate that food is not food. The exhibitions at the ACC Galerie Weimar and the Halle 14 in Leipzig presented works by contemporary artists and artist collectives which address the topics of food, nutrition, satiation and pleasure. They depict fruit “jam sessions”, shepherd schools, guerrilla cooking and the EU-standardised potato. One of the invited artists was the Iranian-born Azad Nanakeli. His works take issue with the scarcity of resources, industrial pollution and the wasteful use of water – especially in the Middle East. Conflict Kitchen and the Critical Art Ensemble were two of the invited artist collectives. Conflict Kitchen was a joint project by two American artists. Their (art) restaurant serves cuisine from countries which are currently in conflict with the United States. The Critical Art Ensemble produces actions, films and publications which focus on issues related to biotechnology and genetic engineering.

Artistic director: Frank Motz
Artists: Bureau d’Etudes (FR), Götz Bury, Mary Ellen Carroll (US), Conflict Kitchen (US), Critical Art Ensemble (US), Fallen Fruit (US), Fernando Garcia-Dory (ES), Arti Grabowski (PL), Laura Junka-Aikio (FI), Jani Leinonen (FI), Tom Marioni (US), Rémy Markowitsch (CH), Azad Nanakeli (IQ/IT), Lucy + Jorge Orta (Studio Orta) (UK), Naufús Ramirez-Figueroa (GT/CA), Zeger Reyers (NL), Asa Sonjasdotter (SE).