Can pasta become magical?
The Futurists made ‘gesamtkunst’ in the 1930’s: multidisciplinary events and performances that incorporated food, scent, poetry and tactic impressions all together in eclecting settings. The Pasta sauna is a contemporary experience inpired by the Futurist art movement.
I created Pasta Sauna initially for Performa ’09 New York and made a new and improved version for Dordtyart in April 2013. After that the sauna has traveled around.
The Pasta Sauna is inspired by the Futurist movement which occurred during the early 20th century and originated in Italy. It saw the breaking of ties with tradition and wholeheartedly embraced the modern.
Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti was the founder of the futurist movement. In 1932 he produced a manifesto of cookery titled La Cucina Futurista literally meaning ‘The Futurist Kitchen’.
The cookbook reflected the Futurists fascination with technology, speed and the ‘new’ and condemned the consuming of pasta claiming it was deceptive in its nutritional content and likely to produce slow and placid characteristics in those who ate it.
‘Abolish pasta, it is an absurd gastronomic religion!’
Marinetti stated.
This announcement caused controversy on almost every pasta-piled dinner table.
The Futurists were also known for their ‘gesamtkunstwerk’, artworks that combined various art-forms into one work, such as poetry, music, cooking, performance and sculpture.
LinYee Yuan Mold MagazineMarije is a true pioneer in the world of food design and has lead the global conversation around the ways design can shape what and how we eat in the years to come. Her lens on the world of food will surprise and delight—ultimately her values of intimacy, pleasure, and a whole systems approach to thinking about food have deeply impacted a generation of designers.
The Pasta Sauna is a space you can enter and enjoy a bowl of freshly cooked pasta, while the boiling water steams your surroundings, creating a sauna.
The effect of eating pasta, described by Marinetti a century ago and supported by science about carbohydrates in our current time, feels exactly like going to a sauna: it will make you slow, relaxed and lethargic.
So, not only will the pasta make you feel lazy and slow, but the sauna as well!
Oh, and did I mention that the pasta-machines are music boxes too?
Pasta Sauna
commissioned by
Performa New York
Developed further for
DordtYart
Dordrecht
Exhibited at
Platform
Munich
and
OCT Gallery
Shenzhen
