Golden Age, a collective performance for Beetsterzwaag

2012-02-05 18:29:00

 As a result of her recent research, Francesca Grilli will present Golden Age, a project focusing on gold considered as alchemical and esoteric element. Gold is incorruptible and close to perfection. The golden age shows us aspects of opulence, prosperity and perfection. For this reason the ancient alchemists conducted experiments at the boundaries of magic. They distilled and mixed various substances in order to transform every other metal into gold. It was believed that gold had therapeutic effects and for this reason, in reproducing it, people would have found a cure for every disease, even immortality. Gold was worn not to flaunt wealth, but to benefit from its spiritual and energetic power, through physical contact.

Golden Age consists in a gold-based lunch offered by the artist to people from the little village of Beetsterzwaag. The artist is interested in the collective experience which arises through the digestion of the food as an essential moment in which gold is returned to the earth. The work’s focus is the digestion intended as a process: commensal’s bodies become the medium for the alchemical transformation as the ancients believed it was possible.The artist, after food has been transformed into gold, will donate it to the community who will puts its faith in her and in the artistic action in order to share a common experience towards the consumption of precious, almost sacred and apparently untouchable food.The collective performance will be completed through photos taken with a special Polaroid Aura Cam 6000 which is normally used in order to capture people’s aura, which is the magnetic field that everybody emanates.

In the recent performances of Francesca, people are the most important part. They define the artwork itself, through a common experience that will be transformed in a sort of ritual. In Golden Age, food consumption is the most important action, the ritual shared among the participants. In this work, as well as in the previous ones, everyday life is the main inspiration, modified by a minimal invisible action, which transforms reality into magic and something fabulous.

Alessandra Saviotti

It is snowing!

2012-02-03 14:59:08

Thank you to our main sponsor for this project De Bakkers Van Verloop

Invitation

2012-02-01 13:45:46

 Everything is almost ready, today we invited people from the village to join us on Sunday for the precious meal.

ART AND FOOD, A LECTURE

2012-01-29 19:22:31

How could we consider a relationship between food and art? I tried to show to the audience some interesting example of art and food in the history of art. I'm interested in how artists approached this theme and the main topic of the research is the artist's restaurant: Taverna del Santopalato by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and Futurists, Restaurant Spoerri, Food by Gordon Matta-Clark, the Rirkrit Tiravanija experience, The Double Club by Carsten Hoeller.

"I believe that the relationship between art and food will never end. It is clear that cultural expressions and eating are both vital for human beings. We saw how the rules that Marinetti wrote in the Manifesto are still actual, despite of being written over 100 years ago. We also saw that a lot of artists have worked with food during their career. In all of the examples that I considered, I think that the most important aspects are the relationships between people, not intended as the audience. Every single person is like a small part of the work itself and it is important to me how art can influence our behavior through a real experience. 

In Francesca’s work as well, people are the most important part in order to define the artwork itself through a common experience that will be transformed in a ritual in which food is the most important action. I would like to conclude with a quote from Francesca which I think it is the key of her entire poetic: the daily miracle is a minimal invisible action which often transforms reality into magic, daily actions and tasks into something fabulous."

Alessandra Saviotti

Film Screenig

2012-01-28 18:50:34

Alessandra Saviotti, an italian independet curator, was invited by Francesca Grilli for a film screening and for a lecture.

Food and Cinema

Peter Greenaway, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, 1989, 124'

The wife of an oafish restaurant owner becomes bored with her husband and considers an affair with a regular patron. 

Food and Traditions

Stanley Tucci, Big Night, 1996, 107' 

A failing Italian restaurant run by two brothers gambles on one special night to try to save the business.