The Artist's Studio Kitchen : Olafur Eliasson
Cooking, Food, Sustainability and Conviviality in Contemporary Art and Design
“ As the team working in the kitchen of Studio Olafur Eliasson, we began our pigment project with the intention of wasting as little as possible by using each and every part of the seasonal produce we receive.”
— Christine Bopp, Lauren Maurer, Monstse Torreda Marti, Nora Wulff
Food is fundamental to human life. Food is necessary to survive and is a universal language between different cultures; it is any substance an organism consumes for nutritional support. Cooking is a generous gesture of care and hospitality that brings us together socially. Food is about sharing; it can be messy; it forces interactions—even if they’re as seemingly insignificant as asking someone you’ve never spoken to, to pass the salt. So, how important is eating and sharing food in an artist’s studio? Can the studio practice be compared to the kitchen?
Throughout history, the artist's studio and the kitchen have shared similar functions, processes, and goals. Both the artist's studio and the kitchen serve as spaces for creative exploration, where new ideas, techniques, and forms are developed and tested. Depending on the size of the studio, like the kitchen, it encourages collaboration among team members, guests, and collaborators from various disciplines, fostering an environment that facilitates the exchange of ideas and knowledge. I have listed some resources that explore the relationship between the artist's studio and kitchen below as a footnote for those interested.1 In this article, I will focus on the studio and kitchen of the internationally renowned Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson and examine how it responds to the contemporary societal and cultural concerns with food production, processing and consumption.
Often known for his large-scale, site-specific installations, sculptures and public artworks, Eliasson’s practice explores themes of perception, nature, and the relationship between humans and their environment. The Studio Olafur Eliasson (SOE) Kitchen extends the artist's interest in environmental and social concerns to food. Located in his Berlin studio, the Kitchen is a creative space for developing and serving wholesome, sustainable, and vegetarian cuisine to the studio's team members, guests, and collaborators. The project emphasises that food can be a medium for artistic expression and communication while promoting sustainability, seasonality, and locally sourced ingredients. The SOE Kitchen's approach to food fosters a sense of community and encourages shared values regarding health, ecology, and the pleasure of eating together, as mentioned above.
In the 2016 published cookbook titled Studio Olafur Eliasson: The Kitchen, Eliasson states that “the Kitchen celebrates the connections between human beings, food, and the sun as a system of energy exchange as an ecology of giving and taking of sharing.”2 The book features over 100 vegetarian recipes, insights into the studio's food philosophy, expansion, and reflections on the role of food in art and culture. Overall, SOE Kitchen is an extension of the artist's creative vision, demonstrating how the intersection of art, food, and sustainability can inspire change and bring people together, demonstrating a deep concern for the environment and climate crisis. The Kitchen transforms the leftover scraps and waste of vegetables and fruit into pigments that later on have been utilised in Olafur Eliasson's watercolour drawings or the recent exhibition titled Sometimes the river is the Bridge at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. 3 For those who want to follow SOE Kitchen on social media, the Kitchen has its own Instagram page highlighting its philosophy.
The key concerns the studio focuses on:
Vegetarian cuisine: The kitchen primarily serves vegetarian meals, as plant-based diets have a lower environmental impact than animal-based diets. This approach reduces greenhouse gas emissions, water usage, and land requirements.
Seasonal and local ingredients: SOE Kitchen sources seasonal and local ingredients whenever possible. This reduces the carbon footprint of transporting food long distances and supports the local economy. It also ensures that the ingredients used are fresh and at their peak nutritional value.
Waste reduction: The kitchen minimises food waste by using every part of the ingredients, practising portion control, and repurposing leftovers creatively. This helps to conserve resources and reduce the environmental impact of food production.
Education and awareness: Through the cookbook and the studio's projects, SOE Kitchen raises awareness about the importance of sustainable food practices and the relationship between food, art, and the environment. An example is the use of watercolour pigments from kitchen scraps included in the exhibition titled Sometimes the river is the bridge at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (June-September 2020). This promotes a broader understanding of the climate crisis and encourages individuals to make more eco-conscious choices in their daily lives.
Sharing food is an inherently social activity that can bring people together and facilitate conversation by using food as a medium. The SOE Kitchen encourages collaboration, discussion, and creating memorable experiences. By focusing on sustainability in the studio's kitchen, Eliasson extends his artistic vision and commitment to addressing climate change into daily practices through collectivity. In the upcoming articles, I will explore how food as a medium in art or a theoretical concept can be used in contemporary practice. I will also focus on specific topics, such as the Magic of Mushrooms or Fermentation. Sign up to my Substack for more exciting, insightful articles and interviews coming up!
Bottura, Massimo, editor. The Kitchen Studio: Culinary Creations by Artists. Phaidon Press Limited, 2021., Bottinelli, Silvia, and Margherita D'Ayala Valva. The Taste of Art: Cooking, Food, and Counterculture in Contemporary Practices. The University of Arkansas Press, 2017., Wist, Allie. “Reclaiming the Kitchen as a Space for Art.” Saveur, 11 Feb. 2021, https://www.saveur.com/story/lifestyle/reclaiming-kitchen-as-space-for-art/.
Eliasson, Olafur, et al. Studio Olafur Eliasson: The Kitchen. Phaidon Press Limited, 2016, pg: 12.
Sometimes the River Is the Bridge - Studio Olafur Eliasson, https://olafureliasson.net/sometimesthebridge/.