FOOD II: What is it?

Well, this is how it started, as a course at the art academy Valand, school of fine arts.
This is ongoing...

" Welcome to FOOD II, a potluck, picnic food party, avantgarde, up in the sky underground, looking for a DIY future Restaurant course.

During this summer, 2011, we will together work and create an art or artistic restaurant of some sort. We will during the course decide how and what this restaurant might be.

Every week (except for one) is connected to a sense. This sense will be the theme for the picnic that we will hold every Friday during the course.

The first week (7-10 June) is a week for you to work on your own sketching and creating ideas and fantasies about what and how an art and food restaurant could be.

The course is based on guests that will come and have talks and workshops, your own artistic works, discussions, picnics and surprises during the weeks. Part of the course is also to grow some of the food that will be used at the finishing restaurant. An important part will be how we together decide how and what we want to fill the different Friday picnics according to the sense theme and the guests input. The course will finish with a one week long restaurant, a restaurant that we together will plan and create during the course.

This is not only an academic course, it is also a conceptual food and social art work that have the intention to find new and important ways of handling future situations concerning food. This is part of the search for a cure against future despair.

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In 1971 American artists Gordon Matta-Clark and Carol Gooden opened FOOD, the legendary artist run restaurant in Soho. Providing artist-cooked meals, a place for gathering, and even employment for artists, FOOD was mecca for New York ' s vibrant experimental downtown art scene.
In summer 2011, Valand summer academy hosts ”FOOD II”, a student- run restaurant serving locally grown, student - prepared meals to the Valand community and neighborhood (8-12 August).
In preparation for the opening of the one week restaurant, ”FOOD II”, students will research and experiment with the history of artist collectives and communities, from Dada performance to Fluxus happenings to today's fusion of art, life, activism and resilient and environmental thinking.
We will also survey artist - run businesses , utopic societies , and artists working with food and living materials in relation to locally grown and sustainable practices. Students will research experimental collective art practice and apply their research to innovating their own temporary art collective. Students will learn and work collaboratively across disciplines, with guest lectures on sustainable agriculture, culinary arts, performance and design."


 http://www.ubu.com/film/gmc_food.html