February 16 – June 10, 2012

Smart Museum of Art

http://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu/exhibitions/feast/

Since the 1930s, numerous artists have used the simple act of sharing
food and drink to advance aesthetic goals and to foster critical
engagement with the culture of their moment. These artist-orchestrated
meals can offer a radical form of hospitality that punctures everyday
experience, using the meal as a means to shift perceptions and spark
encounters that aren't always possible in a fast-moving and segmented
society.

Feast surveys this practice for the first time, presenting the work of
more than thirty artists and artist groups who have transformed the
shared meal into a compelling artistic medium. The exhibition examines
the history of the artist-orchestrated meal, assessing its roots in
early-twentieth century European avant-garde art, its development over
the past decades within Western art, and its current global ubiquity.
Through a presentation within the Smart Museum and new commissions in
public spaces, the exhibition will introduce new artists and
contextualize their work in relation to other influential artists,
from the Italian Futurists and Gordon Matta-Clark to Marina Abramović
and Rirkrit Tiravanija. Feast addresses the radical hospitality
embodied by these artists and the social, commercial, and political
structures that surround the experience of eating together.

Check out the participatory Feast projects here -
http://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu/join-the-feast/