From 1 to 12 November 2021, short-term workshops took place at HfBK Dresden as part of the EU4ART project. Students from the EU4ART university alliance, consisting of the art academies in Budapest, Dresden, Riga and Rome had the opportunity to participate in workshops on graphics, painting and sculpture. The courses were accompanied by a theoretical portion led by art historian Susanne Altmann.

The title of this workshop implies and even downright provokes. It should almost be: “Oh, you don’t play with food?!” Under the direction of artist Manuel Frolik, participants in this special sculpture workshop were able to pursue exactly this question: experimenting with food until a work of art is created.

But first, to introduce the topic, students were given the opportunity to understand the close connection between food and art through various works of art history. Artists have always been inspired by food, starting with the stone-age cave paintings through the splendid Dutch baroque still lifes to the Eat Art of the 1960s. Over the course of the 20^th century, artists began to use food in their works to make political, economic or social statements. They opened restaurants as art projects, staged performances in which food was prepared and served, and made elaborate sculptures from edible materials such as milk and honey. Today, food can be considered a common material in contemporary art practice.

A visit to the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) was also on the agenda for the course participants in order to marvel at famous works on the topic of “culinary delicacies”. In addition to observing, students also had the opportunity to get to know and try real specialties of Saxon cuisine, such as the Dresden Eierschecke and, of course, the famous Dresden Christstollen.

The two-week workshop ended with a small show of the works created.