the future is a hoax

On Fri­day, Feb­ru­ary 28, bay­ern design host­ed a spe­cial event at the Kun­sthalle Nürn­berg: Togeth­er with Dutch food design­er Mar­i­je Vogelzang and Nurem­berg star chef Felix Schnei­der from Etz, we had pre­pared a unique food event.

What was it about? On an inter­ac­tive course, Mar­i­je chal­lenged vis­i­tors to engage inten­sive­ly with the top­ic of time and sen­so­ry per­cep­tions — audi­to­ry, visu­al, hap­tic and, of course, gus­ta­to­ry. This medi-tast­ing (a com­bi­na­tion of “med­i­ta­tion” and “tast­ing”) was less about the design of the food and more about the theme of time using food as an exam­ple. At The future is a hoax, vis­i­tors became part of an immer­sive expe­ri­ence that opened up new approach­es to the top­ics of time and food. Mar­i­je and Felix inspired us to sharp­en our sens­es, ques­tion habit­u­al pat­terns and look at food from the per­spec­tive of the right moment. They also became part of a unique expe­ri­ence design that was devel­oped espe­cial­ly for this event.

The ful­ly booked event took place in coop­er­a­tion with the Kun­sthalle Nürn­berg on the occa­sion of the finis­sage of the exhi­bi­tion Delikatessen. Between Art and Cuisine.

The Dutch food design­er took the enthu­si­as­tic par­tic­i­pants on a jour­ney through space, time and sen­su­al­i­ty in the form of a medi-tast­ing. She invit­ed them to engage with the here and now — with Kairos, as this spe­cial moment is called in Greek mythol­o­gy. In con­trast to Kro­nos, which stands for time that runs smooth­ly and inex­orably, Kairos is asso­ci­at­ed with a good oppor­tu­ni­ty, i.e. a spe­cif­ic moment. Kairos is about act­ing at the right moment. Not too ear­ly. But not too late either, because the future is a hoax.

In groups of five, the par­tic­i­pants were led to var­i­ous sta­tions in the foy­er of the Kun­sthalle one after the oth­er. They wore head­phones to iso­late them from their sur­round­ings on the one hand and to take them by the hand and guide them through the medi-tast­ing on the oth­er. The indi­vid­ual groups approached the first sta­tion back­wards and only con­nect­ed to the per­son in front by a rib­bon: a large table with count­less porce­lain bowls hand­made by Mar­i­je and her team, into which ice water dripped from above. Each drop stood for a con­scious­ly per­ceived moment: “Every drop is a moment that falls into the here and now.” Mar­i­je’s voice invit­ed peo­ple to choose one of the bowls, con­scious­ly expe­ri­ence its imper­fec­tion and give it a per­son­al name.

“Every drop is a moment that falls into the here and now.”

With their bowls in hand, vis­i­tors were led into the etz aro­ma library. Numer­ous spices, fruits and veg­eta­bles, har­vest­ed at the right moment by the etz team and pre­served in jars, gave an insight into the work­ing meth­ods of the team led by star chef Felix Schnei­der — tak­ing the time to trans­form sim­ple plants into some­thing rich and com­plex, thus pre­serv­ing the spe­cial moment. These ingre­di­ents were not processed hasti­ly. They were har­vest­ed at the right time and allowed to mature. Felix goes into the for­est almost every day in search of these ingre­di­ents. When he is out in the for­est, he is with Kairos. They go hand in hand. Just like Kairos, the ingre­di­ents were grabbed at the right moment.

The guests were then giv­en the oppor­tu­ni­ty to taste 16 select­ed fla­vors. In front of them was a card with the sequence for the tast­ing. Each bite told a sto­ry about time. Mar­i­jes and Felix encour­aged the guests to feel, smell and taste each sam­ple and not to judge. Because there is no “good” or “bad” and judg­ing ends curios­i­ty, accord­ing to the voice in the ear.

Final­ly, the group was led into a side room and asked to con­scious­ly rinse their bowls. In Zen Bud­dhism, wash­ing up is a med­i­ta­tive tech­nique. It is the art of com­plete atten­tion. Mar­i­je took the still-damp bowls from the indi­vid­ual guests and dropped them on the floor one by one, to the hor­ror of the guests. Because the moment is fleet­ing and does not last. Step­ping over the shards of their own bowls, the par­tic­i­pants left the side room again. This is also where the tour ended.

After­wards, the guests were giv­en a tour of the exhi­bi­tion and invit­ed to enjoy a drink. The numer­ous par­tic­i­pants took the oppor­tu­ni­ty to look back on what they had expe­ri­enced and enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly share it with oth­ers in con­ver­sa­tion.  At the end, Mar­i­je and Felix’s teams joined them and were greet­ed with a long round of applause.

What remains? An inspir­ing expe­ri­ence between design and art and respect for the moment.

etz  

etz is a restau­rant and an atti­tude. etz is sup­port­ed by a cul­ture of appre­ci­a­tion. For things, for one’s roots, for the moment. etz dis­cov­ers the hid­den depths of the every­day and changes per­cep­tion. etz is culi­nary mind­ful­ness. Every sin­gle moment.

Kun­sthalle Nürn­berg 

Delikatessen. Zwis­chen Kun­st und Küche is the title of a cur­rent spe­cial exhi­bi­tion that can be seen at the Kun­sthalle until March 2. Food is not only under­stood as the mere sat­is­fac­tion of a basic need, but also as a cul­tur­al phe­nom­e­non and polit­i­cal statement.