Biennale Arte 2019: Contemporary art collides with cuisine

 

 

  In an elegant Venetian setting, the MICHELIN Guide and ILLY are blending art and haute cuisine through a limited series of dinners.

To celebrate its bond with Biennale Arte 2019, illycaffè developed a project in which contemporary art collides with cuisine, creating contamination and proposing a truly one of a kind, unedited experience. 

The 58th International Art Exhibition, titled May You Live In Interesting Times, takes place from 11th May to 24th November 2019. The title is a phrase of English invention that has long been mistakenly cited as an ancient Chinese curse that invokes periods of uncertainty, crisis and turmoil; “interesting times”, exactly as the ones we live in today.

illycaffè is organizing a series of four outstanding dinner-events, realized with the MICHELIN Guide and taking place within the lauded restaurant Le Bombarde dell’Arsenale. One by one, guests will bear witness to a creative dialogue between artist – chosen by curator Ralph Rugoff – and a Michelin-starred chef – selected by the Guide itself. Together, chef and artist will give life to a unique experience, available to the public for purchase online only by way of the MICHELIN Guide, and including a private visit to the exhibition.

“The union of taste with beauty is at the core of our brand and our company’s mission statement, and it is kept alive thanks to these creative opportunities for exchange, which become a new artistic form,” explained Massimiliano Pogliani, CEO of illycaffè.

Part of the proceeds from the dinners are donated to the digital photo project of Ar- chivio, the Historic Archives of Contemporary Art at the Venice Biennale. Each artist was given the opportunity to decorate an espresso cup inspired by the project which will become part of a special edition series within the illy Art Collection releasing this coming fall 2019.

Enjoy the second chef/artist collaboration dinner on September 9, 2019: after an exclusive private tour of the Biennale’s Arsenale—one of the two main venues where part of the 58th International Art Exhibition takes place—you will sit down to a meal staged by Argentine artist Ad Minoliti and Italian chef Niko Romito from the three-MICHELIN-starred restaurant Reale.

The most recent illy Art Collection was designed by British artist Marc Quinn. Called Iris, the collection presented six eyes portrayed individually in their uniqueness, enlarged to capture their most intimate essence. Marc Quinn has created the “Iris” collection to reveal all that goes beyond the gaze and reaches into the soul of our existence. The artwork “Iris” brings color into conceptual art, celebrating the relationship between art and science, the human body and the perception of beauty.

Calendar of next dinners:

• September 9, 2019
  Artist: Adriana AD Minoliti – Chef Niko Romito 3***
• September 23, 2019
  Artist: Slavs & Tatars – Chef Juan Amador 3***
• October 7, 2019
  Artist: Ulrike Muller – Chef Sang Hoon Degeimbre 2*.

The Arsenale was the largest production center in Venice during the pre-industrial era and in full-time periods it had up to 2,000 workers a day. It was a huge complex of construction sites where the Serenissima fleets were built and, therefore, a symbol of the economic, political and military power of the city. Since 1980 the Arsenale has become an exhibition site of La Biennale on the occasion of the 1st International Architecture Exhibition. Later on, the same spaces were used during the Art Exhibitions for the Open section. Since 1999, a program for the enhancement of the area has been implemented, which has allowed to open to the public, among other places: the Teatro alle Tese and the Teatro Piccolo Arsenale (2000), the Giardino delle Vergini (2009), and the Sale d’Armi (2015).