How Did the Idea for This Exhibition Come About?

We sought out the best ways to reflect on art and food in ways never imagined before. It all began with a printed volume, followed by an exhibition that we consider our "issue zero"—an ignition event that we organized at Palazzo Collicola Arti Visive in Spoleto to bring the book to life. From that moment on, we started building ALFABETO OBIC, almost as if tracing the foundational roots behind every connection between Food and Culture. Our aim was to identify the "code of taste" in artworks and artistic processes—an alchemical essence that goes beyond eating, a food aesthetic that opens perspectives and refocuses attention on primary ingredients and universal compositions. These are never merely descriptive but instead oriented toward the sublime of contemplation, toward a synesthetic evolution of the very concept of STILL LIFE.

In What Ways Can Food and Art Engage in Dialogue? Is It Possible to Identify Synergies Between These Two Languages?

Food and art have always engaged in dialogue, primarily through iconographic descriptions and compositional models in the pictorial tradition of still life. Over the centuries, there have been notebooks and cookbooks, as well as the avant-garde experiments of Marinetti’s Futurism, the first movement to incorporate food as a habitable form of artistic living. Then there is the intrinsic meaning of human action—cultivating or transforming food is an unconscious yet natural act of creation. The moment an individual touches the essence of food, that act itself becomes an artistic expression.

OBIC’s photographic shots represent a composition linked to the history of art—an alchemical narrative of the silent union between art and food, a meeting point where processes sublimate into photographic essence.

Going beyond mere eating, returning to the essence of food, represents the contemporary ecological aspirations of humanity—a way to rediscover our “place in the world” while imagining a different form of the world itself. Through the soul of the artists, OBIC offers food for thought—an intellectual nourishment that fosters dialogue and introspection.

The Performance on March 21, 2024, Marked the Opening of the Project. Can You Tell Us More About This Moment?

The performance represents the practical essence of OBIC—a sensorial experience where the soul of the project takes shape in a recipe that unfolds on OBIC’s table. It is our “WELCOME TO THE TABLE OF OBIC.” We staged OBIC’s philosophy by placing food aesthetics within a renewed vision of gathering, exchange, and shared intimacy.

To create a recipe inspired by each artist’s work, we first identified the ingredients evoked by their pieces—a sort of material, chromatic, and figurative scale, which we shared with the chef. From there, an edible creation emerged, fusing the soul of food with the spirit of the artwork—an imaginative and symbolic system designed to have an impact first aesthetically, then biologically. The interpretation of works by Roberto Giacomucci, Giulio Marchetti, and Mario Ricci resulted in three new still lifes, which in turn became the subjects of our photographic work. This is how the three new images of ALFABETO OBIC were born.

Broadly Speaking, Can One Eat a Work of Art? If So, How?

Yes, one can eat a work of art. Food, in its anthropological and ethnographic form, is a cultural artifact. At times, it transcends its functional role and becomes art when interpreted in a way that makes it contemplative and evocative—a vital expression of thought given form and balance.

My extensive experience in the world of food, combined with Gianluca Marziani’s long-standing career in art, has enabled a special fusion of forces between these two highly expandable domains. Our goal was to chart a new course beyond the conventional documentation of food.

Food holds immense value, yet we often forget it when we reduce it to mere utility. Artists help us shift our perspective—to enter a contemplative ritual that requires analysis and reflection, merging new ideas to rekindle shared contemplation. This essential act of poetry transforms an artist’s vision into a recipe, using ingredients as sources of inspiration, shaping the very soul of creation. OBIC’s photographic shots depict food as a true work of art.

ALFABETO OBIC Is an Exhibition That Strongly Evokes the Organic Nature of the Artworks. Over the Centuries, How Has This Organic Element Been Traced, Not Only in Art but Also in Food?

The organic theme in art first emerged in the still life paintings of the 17th century, but it was the 20th century that dissected the human body across a variety of themes and languages. In food, the organic aspect exists when it is not merely a means of consumption but retains its primary value, origin, and connection to its “genius loci.”

When we speak of a clod of earth, we should not go beyond what it is—a clod of earth. With OBIC, we aim for a clod to remain a clod, for an apple to remain an apple, while altering the framework through which we engage with ingredients. We seek to transform our relationship with the very structure of eating.

Images: Antonio Marras/Parmigianna di zucca

Danilo Bucchi/ Profitterol

Follow OBIC: Exhibitions, Events, and Collections

🌍 Website: https://www.obicart.it/

🎨 OpenSea Collection: https://opensea.io/collection/obic-idea-or-vision-of-food-taking-the-soul-seriou

📸 https://www.instagram.com/obic_art/

📩 Contacts

• Anna Paola Lo Presti – Project

✉️ [email protected]

📞 +39 392 16 08 148

• Gianluca Marziani – Curator

✉️ [email protected]

• Manuele Marazzi – External Relations

✉️ [email protected]