What do artists cook in their kitchens? A museum stays relevant during Covid-19 by creating cookbook of recipes provided by Ai Weiwei and others
- Pre-pandemic, eating with artists was one way Mami Kataoka, director of the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, got to know them beyond their work. Then the borders shut
- Amid Covid-19 a digital programme was set up to connect artists and viewers – they contributed recipes that were compiled into Artists’ Cookbook Under Lockdown
What do you do when a pandemic forces the closure of your contemporary art museum in Tokyo, your staff have to work from home, you can’t travel to visit the artists you showcase (and vice versa), and everyone is forced to put their lives on hold?
If you’re the Mori Art Museum (MAM), you find other ways to stay relevant and, like so many other businesses, you go online.
That’s what Mami Kataoka, director of MAM, describes in Artists’ Cookbook Under Lockdown (2021). She says that, pre-pandemic, eating with artists was one way of getting to know them beyond their work.
In the preface to the book, Kataoka writes: “One can find that there are many artists who are good at cooking. Some even have the culinary skills of a professional chef. As a curator, whose work involves visiting artists’ studios in order to organise exhibitions, we often have chances to enjoy home-cooked meals by artists and exotic dishes from various places around the world.
“It is an important part of research for curators, who serve as mediators between artists and viewers, not only to meet directly with artists and see their works in person, but also to be aware of their environments – where and how their works are created and the kind of people they are surrounded by. We can uncover a lot of things by looking at food culture […]
