Rafael Pérez Hernando Physiology of Taste (Fisiología del gusto

Rafael
Pérez Hernando
C/ Orellana 18. 28004 Madrid
Teléfono / Tel. no.: +34 91 297 64 80
info@rphart.net
www.rphart.net
Physiology of Taste
(Fisiología del
gusto)
Comisariada por / Curated by
Director / Manager:
Rafael Pérez Hernando
Alexios Papazacharias
Lunes a viernes / Monday – Friday:
10 – 14 / 17 – 20.30 h.
Sábado / Saturday: 11 –14 h.
Artistas / Artists
Mike Swaney
FilipposTsitsopoulos
11/04 > 06/06/2016
Fisiología del gusto
Alexios Papazacharias
The discovery of a new dish confers more happiness on humanity
than the discovery of a new star.
Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
Such an exhibition project that is based on inviting different people to collaborate is similar to an
invitation to dinner, to the old kind of dinner. The type of dinner with exclusive delicacies to taste
and an interesting group of invited people to talk with always seems to have a free spot for another
interesting person to join. With this in mind I invited to this project the most adequate person for
the occasion: Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin.
A historical figure of taste, probably the first gastronome, Savarin (born in 1755 in Belley) was
an expert in gastronomy, the art of dinning and discussion. Born and raised in France in the period
of the late enlightenment, Savarin’s approach to gastronomy is the result of the democratization of
knowledge, of individualism, analysis and reason and certainly of the disambiguation of traditional
authorities like the Catholic Church.
In the middle of his life he witnessed one of the most important events in history: the French
Revolution. As the educated man he was (he studied law, chemistry and medicine) he took part, at
the opening of the revolution, in the National Constituent Assembly in Paris and defended capital
punishment through a public speech, demonstrating a very conservative political attitude rooted in
the relatively easy and rich life he had enjoyed before the revolution. As a result, he became an
enemy of Robespierre and the other revolutionaries. A couple of years later he returned to his
hometown and in 1792 he was elected Mayor. Yet, the following year he found himself in great
danger and had to leave France after being labeled as counter-revolutionary.
During a four year period of exile he traveled to Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and finally
the newly established United States of America where he resided in Boston, Connecticut, New York
and Philadelphia. In the States, he worked as a French teacher as well as a violin player in order to
gain a living; he even became the first violin in the Park Theater of New York and it is said that he
owned a Stradivarius. The period of exile was for him an occasion to study food ethics and
gastronomy outside France and especially outside Paris. He could often be found among the
carefully selected invitees of dinners that included physicians, scientists and intellectuals of all fields.
His Physiology of Taste was published some months before his death. It remains until today
the most important book on gastronomy. His major work and his theories have a very important
impact in modern gastronomy. In his book one can find analyzed in theories, classified in chapters
and concluded into aphorisms all his ideas about food, ideas that are for him more about eating
than about consuming. In his theories, the pleasure of eating becomes a matter of education, of
knowledge, of the right use of the right materials at the right time. For him a new plate is not an
accident but a carefully executed experiment with positive results; that is to say, pleasure for the
senses, nourishment for the body. It is the first time that gastronomy becomes a science and food
becomes a subject for analysis from different points of view.
What is really interesting in our days is that the concept of food in today’s culture of
representation is being approached from two oppositional ways. One has to do with TV gourmet,
Iron Chef or Jamie Oliver, TV shows that made gastronomy a largely popular issue. The other one
refers to the problem of the lack of food and universal poverty that a great part of this world is
sinking under.
What is exciting in the participation of the two artists Filippos Tsitsopoulos and Michael Swaney
in this exhibition “hommage à Savarin” is that their approach to what we call food has nothing to do
with the above mentioned ways of treating nourishment. Tsitsopoulos, influenced by the mannerist
style of the 16th century and especially this of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, an artist famous for inspiring
Salvador Dalí and for being largely copied by other artists, creates tableaux vivants, still lives that talk
and become a theater of smell and taste. Almost as an existential drama or comedy constantly
balancing between the richness and glamour of delicacies and the disgust, sliminess and
nauseousness of the raw, the uncooked, the material or the ingredient out of context, out of the plate,
away from the table, not to be consumed, on his face, as a part of his face, as a part of a character.
On the other hand, Michael Swaney, in the works that are presented in this exhibition, explores the
interconnections of food and form through representational techniques like painting. Unlike Savarin
that gave a great importance to the senses even when referring to food and unlike a mother that
compares a spoonful to an airplane in order to convince a little kid to eat, Swaney uses food in a way
that it emphasizes its optical recognitions, creativity and imagination enriching the idea of
nourishment for the sake of the eye, recalling the immediacy and sharpness of a kid’s drawing.
With the personality of Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin and his rather interesting life, we have
prepared an exhibition that everybody is welcomed to taste with his/her taste.
From my part I bring the dessert: Savarin, a baba au rum variation named after the gastronome.
Filippos Tsitsopoulos. Lobster beggar, La Regenta, 2010
Fotografía de la performance
Filippos Tsitsopoulos. Kage where K for Kott at the South bank Center- Queens walk, 2014
Filippos Tsitsopoulos. The Cabinet of Curiosities, 2014
Grabación de la performance
Video instalación 4 canales de monólogos. HD Vídeo tr. in Blueray. Ed. 3 + 2
Mike Swaney. Painter in vegetables's clothing, 2014
Mike Swaney. Painter in pebbles clothing, 2014
Óleo y geso sobre mantel de hule, 89 x 130 cm
Óleo y geso sobre mantel de hule, 89 x 130 cm
Mike Swaney. Motos, 2015
Óleo y geso sobre mantel de hule, 81 x 115,5 cm