THREE COURSE MENU

Drawing on the history of the original Gasthof in 2002, it is particularly interesting to explore how food as a medium of artistic practice has changed over the past twenty years. In light of accelerating climate change, successive crises of forced displacement and the current cost of living crisis, the production and sharingof food has arguably taken on a more acute political and social significance. This development is especially visible in Frankfurt, where in recent years diverse initiatives have proliferated addressing ecological, political and social problems through growing, cooking and sharing food. The ideas and motivations behind such projects can also be linked to a new preoccupation with food in contemporary art. Gasthof therefore represents an opportunity to take stock of the changing status of food as a medium ofartistic practice. Is making dinner still an act that contains radical artistic possibilities? If so, where is the line between the art of eating, and the eating of art? And in a wider perspective: what role can art play in challenging destructive global food systems? With that in mind, we, the Curatorial Studies Class of 2021, launched the open call “Eating of Art / Art of Eating“ at Städelschule and the international Fine Art classes invited to Gasthof. To create a dialogue between the diverse works of 12 artists, we developed the exhibition programme THREE COURSE MENU as a metaphor for a rapidly changing display.