The exhibit “Arts & Foods: Rituals Since 1851” opened Thursday April 8 at the Triennale Museum and will open throughout Milan Expo 2015, as the food-themed world fair has been picked for the event.  The Triennale exhibit on the relationship between art, design and food is designed by Italian talents Germano Celant and Italo Rota. 

More than two thousand pieces from all over the world illustrate the relationship between humans and food. Arts&Foods is a journey through the history of the most familiar space: the house spaces where food is not only prepared but also eaten, from the dining room to the hearth. The show includes films from different eras, and artworks by masters such as Giorgio De Chirico, Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Giorgio Morandi, and Andy Warhol. The show closes with reflection of contemporary artists on today’s contradictions: the existence of world hunger on one hand, and the food disorders of opulence, like bulimia and anorexia, on the other.

The itinerary is organized by themes and senses: refrigerators speak of water and cold, from minibars to massive storage and the modern blast freezer, stove ranges fit into the history of the kitchen fire. Kitchen garbage treatment explores the relationship between the earth and the kitchen. The exhibit continues with air, touch and smell, ambling from kitchen hoods to chopping and slicing blades. The olfactory sense is explored through coffee, with a selection of more than 100 electric machines that trace the brew’s evolution from the early 1900s to today.


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