Twelfth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

A case study on performative, social, relational, and community-engaged artworks that have in common shared experiences over food. Beginning with Rirkrit Tiravanija’s seminal work from Bourriaud’s exhibition Traffic (1996), I look to the way artists cultivate sociality through food-related practices and processes. In this paper I propose the non-linear yet progressive turn in postmodern and contemporary art where relational, social, and community-centred approaches has moved from marginal to mainstream, using artworks that specifically engage food, cooking, and dining to punctuate this trajectory. In particular, I focus in on international yet grassroots community projects like Occupy the Kitchen (Vol. 1 and 2) by Franca Ferment and Evelyn Leveghi as a collaborative, site-responsive, relational, disruptive, and activist project that expands on notions of community by bridging national boundaries and harnessing the power of art for social change.