Curated by Germano Celant

On the occasion of Expo Milano 2015—its theme is “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”—Celant will mount an ambitious exhibition exploring the history of food as a symbolic, ritual, and material presence in the arts. Serving up more than two thousand works produced between 1851 (the year of the first Expo in London) and 2015, in an enormously wide range of media, the show will explore the alimentary angles of everything from sustainability to postcolonial hybridity and promises a rich sensorial experience set in reconstructed dining rooms, kitchens, and bars, all designed by Studio Italo Rota. From Monet’s Der Koch (Le Chef Père Paul), 1882, to Daniel Spoerri’s 1968 Le Coin du Restaurant Spoerri, and from Meret Oppenheim’s Bon Appétit, Marcel, 1966, to Rirkrit Tiravanija’s Ohne Titel (Bon voyage Monsieur Ackermann), 1995, it seems nothing will be left out or extraneously in. This veritable feast will be accompanied by a “cookbook,” featuring fifty essays and more than one thousand illustrations.

— Mary Ann Caws