november 1, 2014: museums at night @ van gogh museum.
the commission & challenge
- create an edible impression of paintings by van gogh for museums at night 2014 (november 1, 2014) with an emphasis on taste;
- theme of museums at night @ van gogh museum: all your senses.
the selected paintings
- after visiting the gogh museum amsterdam several times to get more acquainted with van gogh’s work and some book research we selected 3 different paintings by vincent van gogh reflecting the 3 main periods one can distinguish in his life as a painter:
input for the bites in a nutshell.
- the fact that vincent became more colourful on the canvas during these 3 periods. we showcased this process by creating colour “bar”codes for the selected paintings, and these colour codes reflected in the 3 eat’impressions.
- besides the eyes and taste, we also addressed the other senses in each bite, as eating & drinking is a full sensory experience for us.
- the act of eating/drinking for the visitors of museums at night @ van gogh museum was inspired by the specific action of the persons depicted by van gogh on the paintings.
- van gogh’s signature brushstrokes we used as input for the wheat field with a reaper.
- van gogh’s respect for the hard labour by paysants we incorporated in the woman lifting potato.
- his struggle in life and in his paintings we expressed in the eat.cocktail reflecting agustina segatori in le tambourin.
the result: 3 eat’impressions reflecting van gogh and his paintings.
- so visitors could lift and peel potatoes (marinated and wrapped in clay) and they received a bonus for their labour.
- visitors were invited to experience an eat.cocktail which was expressing in many ways the cafe life of vincent and his struggle as an artist and in life.
- and visitors could enjoy the labour of the reaper in the field and touch the bright sky.
the future of this project.
- this commission by the van gogh museum amsterdam inspired us to the eat’inspiration in search of excellence, in which we explore the talents of various dutch masters.
- this project will be part of our exhibition dutch icons revisited.
- and in 2015 -in the context of vincent van gogh 2015– we will create an eat’inspiration as a tribute to his work. so … if you did not had the change to do van gogh in 3 bites during museums @ night 2014 we give you a 2nd chance.