Martí Guixé: Images of food, words and business models

At the Hangar Bicocca, the ex-designer presents his reflections on food: 9000 pictures collected over fifteen years, projects, installations and a book

The first time I met Marti Guixé, he was presenting Taoist master Fuokuoka Masanobu's theory, the "one-straw revolution." I don't remember exactly what his connection was with this dramaturgic invention aside from what the title suggests; it was a hymn to non-action, self-regulation — a farmer must only reap his fruits and leave the rest to the ground.

What struck me then about Guixé, and continues to amaze me now, is this very conceptual anacoluthon, the inversion with which for decades this Catalan improviser with the shaky signature hasn't exploited what, for other designers, would be muscular stratagems or ways to multiply and enrich their products; he merely collects the product itself in its raw form. For him, stories are not the pretext or the embellishment of a project — they are the project. The images are not a communicative film or a filter for showing the exhibit but the exhibited result.

On the Friday of the Salone del Mobile, Guixé opened a series of events at the new Hangar Bicocca, inserted in the HB Public program, which will alternate a monthly calendar of visitors and narratives from various disciplines. And it is a success. The brand new space that anticipates Peter Feldman's installation opened two weeks ago and is full of people. Over there, beyond the tent, the German artist's Shadow Play, where the magical and impalpable projection of a collection of shady characters counterbalances the ontological skeleton of objects casually arranged on a table. Over here, another white screen with the successive projections of three of Guixé's collections in which objects, if there are any, are only casual visitors. A dialogue between art and design that is alternative and antecedent, or, if possible, "former" as the ex-designer defines himself; Guixé came to design when design began to look at art.

Top: Martí Guixé, <em>Public Fountain Ice Cube (Pfic) BAR</em>, 2008. Installation view at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. Photo by Inga Knölke. Above: <em>Solar Kitchen</em>, developed in collaboration with chef Antto Melasniemi in 2011 — Top: Martí Guixé, *Public Fountain Ice Cube (Pfic) BAR*, 2008. Installation view at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. Photo by Inga Knölke. Above: *Solar Kitchen*, developed in collaboration with chef Antto Melasniemi in 2011

They are: 9000 pictures of food collected over fifteen years of shoots in all corners of the planet. A string of neologisms, often born from the most unexpected crases (Foodball, Flamp, Mealing) or demented onomatopoeia (Pfic Bar alluding to the German equivalent of "fuck", or Spamt to describe the redesign of bread with tomato spread). And finally a book of what, with a little self-irony, Guixé calls "business models," even if they have little to do with business: the Lapin Kulta solar kitchen restaurant designed with chef Antto Melasniemi which obviously only works in good weather; the "Algae Bar" or "Candy Restaurant" specialized in merchandise genres that are not quite unique dishes. Guixé also has produced somewhat socio-political experiments aimed, for example, at the use of public water with extreme and provocative results that transform water into ice for use in a "champagne fountain"; or the functionalization of restaurants used as platforms for distributing beverages, in which takeaway food is produced by multiple external and multiethnic sources provided on demand in a single space — "Food Facility." Food here is understood as a social element that can drive — within a broader context — the relationship between citizens and urban space, consumers and city, and why not, as Guixé suggests, design and business.

Martí Guixé, <em>Solar Kitchen</em>, developed in collaboration with chef Antto Melasniemi in 2011 — Martí Guixé, *Solar Kitchen*, developed in collaboration with chef Antto Melasniemi in 2011

Just as these concepts often arise spontaneously and only later, if ever, find buyers foolish enough to back them, even serial images serve more as ritual gestures than for future reference. This is true from 1995 onwards, when Guixé started shooting his first photographs of daily life in Berlin, taking advantage of a store that developed his slides for free. From there onwards, the images multiplied, and it is the very quantity — a typical ploy in some contemporary art — that captivates in the presentation rather than the quality or the use that perhaps will never be made of them. As in every collection — and it is true here as well — there is the problem for the author of classifying the dishes; by type, form or color or by price range, meal or ingredients? The answer lies in treating food as an integral object, which is why all the dishes are photographed as soon as they are served. We do not see leftovers and the presence of the guests is minimal; sometimes a hand or a reflection in a glass reveals them.

What fascinates and convinces in Guixé's practice is the juxtaposition of serious or feasible projects with an exclusively provocative social motivation that together, however, can open a discussion

Martí Guixé, <em>Foodbank</em>, 2002 — Martí Guixé, *Foodbank*, 2002

Since the result non disputandum est, it is natural to look back at what preceded these inventions to seek their meaning or underlying rationale. We are talking about an approach; an attitude that appears as disenchanted and secular as it is dreamlike or as detached as it is vertical and critical. Kuno Prey, who has long followed Guixé's work and who, in turn, is particularly fond of and devoted to thinking about the mechanisms of the production and consumption of food, was in the audience at the presentation. What fascinates and convinces him in Guixé's practice is the juxtaposition of serious or feasible projects with an exclusively provocative social motivation that together, however, can open a discussion. "Our eating habits are often completely underestimated and inattentive. Here the designer asks us to become aware of them — not through narrative, which can lie, but through the mechanism of multiplying the vision of what we consume. Our habit of producing food often neglects quality, health, origins and transformation processes. We don't expect a cultural revolution linked to the world of food from a designer but Guixé makes an intelligent, brave and not banal contribution."

I would add that it is probably not even an "intentional" contribution, but a completely spontaneous one. But isn't that true of just one straw?

Martí Guixé, vase for <em>Mealing</em> performance, 2009. Photo by Inga Knölke — Martí Guixé, vase for *Mealing* performance, 2009. Photo by Inga Knölke

<em>Bless/Guixé at Lima</em>, double installation by Martí Guixé and German design collective Bless (Desiree Heiss e Ines Kaag), at Milan's Spazio Lima, 2006 — *Bless/Guixé at Lima*, double installation by Martí Guixé and German design collective Bless (Desiree Heiss e Ines Kaag), at Milan's Spazio Lima, 2006

Innovation and sustainability in building materials

The new range of lime-based thermal plasters by Röfix is designed to provide advanced insulation solutions.

Sponsored content

Martí Guixé: Images of food, words and business models

At the Hangar Bicocca, the ex-designer presents his reflections on food: 9000 pictures collected over fifteen years, projects, installations and a book

Enveloped by nature

Innovation and sustainability in building materials

Latest on Design

Latest on Domus