Chemnitz
Mahlzeit! Feinkunsthalle
With the exhibition series Mahlzeit!, Museum Gunzenhauser is dedicating itself to the theme of food in art in 2026.
Far more than everyday consumer products, food in art evolves into an artistic and historical documentation of human and social conditions and concerns. It becomes a carrier of meaning and imagery for socio-political discourses and socio-economic conditions, social orders, cultural codes, intercultural diversity, and power structures.
With the first exhibition, we welcome you to the Feinkunsthalle. Modeled on the spatial layout of a grocery store, the exhibition rooms of the Feinkunsthalle invite you to discover the most exquisite foodstuffs and delicacies from the collections of Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz. From the in-house bakery to the fruit and vegetable section, along the meat counter to the chewing gum at the checkout, the exhibition presents a diverse range of artistic depictions of food spanning different eras.
As an existential part of human life, depictions of food have always served as a central and multifaceted motif in art.
From numerous still lifes, which serve as the primary genre for depicting food in art history, to the reform movements of the 1920s, when questions surrounding vegetarian and vegan lifestyles gained momentum, to malnutrition in unstable periods and the consumption of meat—in the multi-perspective compilation of the Feinkunsthalle, historical and contemporary works enter into a dialogue about food as a cultural, economic, and social product.
In doing so, the Feinkunsthalle explores the representation of the consumer and cultural history of food in art. What stories can be told through depictions of food? Which products were consumed during a specific era, and how?
What can we learn from this about historical contexts?
Dates
Venue
Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz MUSEUM GUNZENHAUSER
Stollberger Str. 2
09111 Chemnitz
Organiser: Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz MUSEUM GUNZENHAUSER
