Carolyn Steel

Charlotte Birnbaum

Sanford Kwinter

Daniel Birnbaum

Tobias Rehberger

Mike Bouchet

Fabrice Mazliah

David Ruy

Kivi Sotamaa

Jan Aman

CULINARY LESSONS - The Space of Food is based on a series of events, Culinary Lessons, which were hosted by the Städelschule Architecture Class and which engaged with the relation between food, art and architecture. The series addressed the enormous so- cial, economic and cultural spaces that accompany the production and consumption of food, and attempted to unravel some of these spaces' structure and dynamics. The central ambition was to learn from culinary history and, not the least, the recent vanguard of culinary practice. No human activity is so encompassing and engenders such ef- fects on our societies and lives as the culinary. Culinary practices lay out aesthetic as much as ethical trajectories that span from century-old traditions to lifesaving experiments for the present and future. They provide for human sustenance and the highest form of bodily enjoyment while transversing the spaces that they at once produce and profoundly affect. This fourth issue of the SAC JOURNAL presents the central con- versation in Culinary Lessons, which took place in Venice, together with a series of texts and projects that chart and speculate on the relationship between architecture, art and the culinary wor- ld. Contributors to this issue include, amongst others, Charlotte Birnbaum, Daniel Birnbaum, Mike Bouchet, Sanford Kwinter, Fabrice Mazliah, Tobias Rehberger, David Ruy, Kivi Sotamaa, Carolyn Steel, Jan Åman and Johan Bettum. It also features the winning projects of the AIV Master Thesis Prize in 2015 and 2016. SAC JOURNAL is a publication series that addresses topical isues within architecture. The journal documents, critically reviews and presents theoretical discussions concerning contemporary design and research. The content of SAC JOURNAL is produced by invited contributors and students and faculty at the Städel- schule Architecture Class.

SAC Journal 4

Culinary Lesson: The Space of Food

The work produced by Mike Bouchet in recent years seems to present a compulsion to alter one's place in the world by reproducing and re-contextualizing "desirable" things in and of the world. His projects and exploits are one-to-one models--real transactions with their own autonomy and agency. You cannot alter your place in the world without first altering your image of the world. Bouchet's endeavor goes beyond representation or a kind of DIY prudence, into what can best be described as a real-life parody. This artist uses everything at his disposal to grow, package, and pitch his own products. In systems such as these, even real transactions are not completely convincing, the reification of one's product through extensive image production is needed to make it completely viable. Contributors Lucas Ajemian and Colin Gardner Conversation with Daniel Birnbaum

Selected Works 1989-2009

Mike Bouchet

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