Hors-d'œuvre

Location: Cercle Cité, Ratskeller exhibition space

Exhibition dates: 20 October 2023 - 21 January 2024

Free entrance

Hors-d'œuvre focuses on the theme and metaphor of food in contemporary art. This exhibition sheds light on the complex relationship between people and their food, and showcases the artistic interpretation of food consumption and its effects on society and the environment, in particular.

With pressing ecological issues, overconsumption- and production and the (de-)valorisation of labour, food became a material in contemporary art to shed light on critical societal topics. The exhibition will present a selection of works by artists from the Benelux and Greater Region - photographs, paintings, performances, installations and videos - whose forms, structures, materials and concepts explore the theme of food in an original, critical and playful way, through notions of enjoyment, waste, pollution, addiction, migration, displacement, identity and gender roles.

Food is a vital component of our daily lives, however our dealing with food and our consumption patterns are as individual and manifold as the artistic interpretations of the subject.

“Your drinks are served”: Trixi Weis will kickstart the exhibition with her participative performance economy class. In addition to the performance, the artist again questions addiction and the scale of its impact on society with her tiny sculpture sugar.

In her triptych Sweet Country Florence Haessler also thematises sweets. With chocolates wrapped in shiny paper, peppermint candy and Tic Tacs, Haessler paints a flag of Luxembourg as a powerful representation of her belonging to a country that once welcomed her with open arms.

Alexandre Lavet, who demarks himself by his craftfully created facsimiles, also reacts to relocating in a very personal way. After having relocated to Brussels, he created the work, All the good times we spent together that refers and pays homage to the many openings that the artist attended when discovering the Brussels art scene.

Simone Decker’s Chewing in Venice 2 is a photographic series that was exhibited at the Luxembourgish Pavilion at the 48th Venice Biennale 1999. By using a very specific angle in her photographic work, she staged chewing gum sculptures in the streets of Venice that only exist as the photographic time bubbles.

In her video work, Bea de Visser adopts a sensitive and engaged point of view. Blowup is composed of intimate close-ups showing girls, chewing bubble gums, a common and seemingly innocent ritual.

In her work Plague, Puck Verkade portrays a metamorphosis between a housewife and a fly in a truly Kafkaesque way. The video is narrated from a unique perspective, the one of a housefly. To experience the unusual story, the audience is invited to take place in an installation made out of giant cardboard fries.

In his paintings, Ugo Li plays with the iconography of banquets and abundance, referring to absurdism and playing with words. The generally absent human figure is at times revealed to us by small parts of the human body, such as hands or fingers.

Jieun Lim’s neon work DRIED SQUID COLD BEER AND PEANUTS stems from a scene in a Korean film taking place in a train. This quote of a trolley vendor evokes a specific regional feel and was translated into English to address the automatic linguistic changes that result from translations.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a rich and diverse programme of events, including conferences, workshops, tastings, cooking demonstrations and a performance by artist Noe Duboutay.

Exhibition opening

Thursday 19 October at 6 p.m.

18:30 - 19:30: economy class by Trixi Weis (participative performance)

18:30 - 20:30: Food for thought with DJ Suske en Wiske! (DJ set)

Free entrance, no prior registration needed 

Free guided tour every Saturday 

21/10/23 at 3 p.m. (FR)

28/10/23 at 3 p.m. (EN)

04/11/23 at 3 p.m. (LU/DE)

18/11/23 at 3 p.m. (EN)

25/11/23 at 3 p.m. (LU/DE)

02/12/23 at 3 p.m. (FR)

16/12/23 at 3 p.m. (LU/DE)

23/12/23 at 3 p.m. (FR)

30/12/23 at 3 p.m. (EN)

13/01/24 at 3 p.m. (FR)

Free entrance and without registration, subject to availability

Curatorial visit with Anastasia Chaguidouline

20/01/24 at 3 p.m. (EN)

Free entrance and without registration, subject to availability

Guided tour for families

11/11/23 at 3 p.m. (FR)

09/12/23 at 3 p.m.(EN)

06/01/24 at 3 p.m. (LU/DE)

Free entrance and without registration, subject to availability

Guided tour combined with the All you can eat exhibition at the Lëtzebuerg City Museum

09/11/23 from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. (EN)

23/11/23 from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. (FR)

14/12/23 from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. (FR)

18/01/24 from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. (LU/DE)

Free entrance and without registration, subject to availability

Also to be seen in parallel to the Hors-d'œuvre exhibition: the exhibition All you can eat - l'homme et son alimentation at the Lëtzebuerg City Museum!

Special opening hours:

24.12.2023 and 31.12.2023: 11am-3pm

Closed:

25.12.2023 and 01.01.2024