MILAN.- Arts & Foods: Rituals since 1851, the first Pavilion of Expo Milano 2015, opened, Thursday 9 April. The Thematic Area that the World Expo is devoting to art and its forms – and the only one located in the centre of Milan, outside the exhibition site – was presented at the Palazzo della Triennale, where it will remain on display until 1 November.

Together with Giuseppe Sala, CEO of Expo 2015 S.p.A. and the Government Commissioner for Expo Milano 2015, and Claudio De Albertis, President of La Triennale, speakers at the meeting included Dario Franceschini, Minister of Cultural Heritage, Cultural Activities and Tourism, Giuliano Pisapia, Mayor of the City of Milan, Arturo Dell’Acqua Bellavitis, President of the Triennale Design Museum, Silvana Annicchiarico, Director of the Triennale Design Museum and Germano Celant curator of the exhibition. The moderator was Roberto Arditti, Director of Institutional Affairs of Expo 2015 S.p.A.

“Today we are pleased and proud to open the first Pavilion of the World Expo,” said Giuseppe Sala, CEO of Expo 2015 S.p.A. and Government Commissioner for Expo Milano 2015. “Arts & Foods is a special Thematic Area, not just because it is in the heart of the city, but especially because it is devoted to art, the form best suited to communicating the universal reach of Expo Milano 2015, as well as the symbolic and representative values of the theme “Feeding the Planet: Energy for Life”. In the exhibition on show in these rooms, an investigation of the kaleidoscopic relationships between the arts and food is an essential means for reinterpreting the economic and social history of the world since the mid-nineteenth century. The event being put on here, which is for visitors of all ages, origins and backgrounds, arose out of a conversation with Germano Celant, who has curated the exhibition and edited the book with long, extensive research, together with Italo Rota, who has designed the huge, complex display, and with La Triennale, a dynamic and attentive partner.”

“The World Expo is a key opportunity for Italy,” said Claudio De Albertis, President of La Triennale di Milano. With this in mind, La Triennale could not fail to take up the invitation from Expo Milano 2015 to host the great Arts & Foods exhibition devised and curated by Germano Celant. For La Triennale, this invitation is a twofold reason for pride, for on the one hand it constitutes recognition of the institution as a driving force for innovative culture and creativity, and on the other because La Triennale itself is the only cultural institution in the world to be recognised by the B.I.E., the Bureau International des Expositions. The exhibition, the largest ever held on the subject, the research that has gone into it, and the catalogue with contributions from authors from around the globe, will all give exciting, comprehensive responses, which I am sure will be appreciated by countless visitors.”

Ever since its beginning in 1851, the Universal Exposition has paid particular attention to art. Interest in cultural, artistic and educational aspects has continued to grow over the years, and Expo Milano 2015 has decided to devote one of its pavilions to a large and important exhibition inspired by the theme of the event: “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.” The project has become Arts & Foods. Rituals since 1851, a major exhibition curated by Germano Celant that sets out to investigate the relationship between the arts and different rituals associated with food around the world: an historical view of the aesthetic and functional influence eating has exerted on the languages of creativity; an exploration of the way in which art in all its forms has dealt with the themes of nourishment. The exhibition, in which the display of the works has been designed by Italo Rota, with the support of Irma Boom for the graphic design, will open on April 9 and will last until November 1 in the spaces of the Triennale di Milano and its garden, the historic building designed by Giovanni Muzio in the early 1930s.

Arts & Foods extends to cover roughly 7,000 square meters in order to present a wide variety of visual and sculptural languages, as well as objects and settings, that have revolved around food and feasting from 1851 to the present day in; and to do so in the most complete way possible. It is a panoramic view of the way aesthetics and design are intertwined with the ritual of eating in an exhibition that is made up not just of artworks, but also of installations and aural, olfactory and cinematic experiences, offering visitors a sample of the diverse forms of creativity that have developed across diverse cultures. The exhibition tackles innumerable subjects related to food, its preparation, its distribution and its sharing, in both private and public spheres, from a perspective that is at once chronological and thematic. It develops these themes through the reconstruction of more than 15 settings and rooms connected with the cooking and consumption of food—from the dining room to the kitchen including bar and picnic —in which, furniture, objects, sculptures, electric appliances, photographs, documents, film clips, TV programs, advertising posters, clothes, toys, album covers, publications on gastronomical subjects and menus tell a story of great visual impact, with over 2,000 works on loan from museums, public and private foundations, collectors and artists from all over the world. In a sensory dimension broadened by the presence of music recordings and aroma, points for the screening of excerpts from movies and TV programs, literary quotations and over 40 showcases along the route in which important collections of objects and documents are displayed, Arts & Foods proposes a journey in time that develops the theme of Expo Milano 2015 creatively. The project will also be enriched by a number of installations and works created by contemporary artists specifically for the spaces inside and outside the Triennale.

Another strongpoint of the exhibition is the section devoted exclusively to children and teenagers, who will be able to take a tour “off-limits for grownups”. The tour is designed to offer maximum safety for its visitors, allowing them to explore relationships between the arts and food through toys, anima- tions, costumes and artworks created especially for the world of childhood. It will include 93 paintings by Andy Warhol he especially created for the very young.

As part of Arts & Foods, the publishing house Electa will produce a substantial, roughly 900 page volume in two editions (Italian and English). The aim is to propose a “recipe book” containing more than 50 essays on the topics of the exhibition and hundreds of illustrations. It is a critical and varied collection of international contributions from specialists in each sector, museum curators and collectors.