Daniel Spoerri

(Galați, Romania, 1930)

Artist and writer, he transferred the principles of Ducahmp's ready-mades to his "edible art". Spoerri was the first exponent of Eat-Art and a member of the Nouveau Réalisme group. It uses food remains for later assembly, forming the well-known tableaux-pièges (trap paintings). These are everyday items, utensils and food leftovers fixed to the table (table) where they were consumed. They are gathered and assembled as a pictorial support that, when placed in a vertical position and fixed to the wall, turns that "image trap" into something lasting, a three-dimensional pictorial work. Numerous monographic exhibitions have been dedicated to him at the Museé National d'Art Moderne and the Center George Pompidou in Paris, at the Museum of Modern Art in Vienna, at the Jean Tinguely Museum in Basel, at the Aktionsforum Praterinsel in Munich or at the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris, in 2002.

His work Un coup de dés was exhibited at MediaLab, presenting a table divided longitudinally into two opposing parts. In one part, it offers diners an opulent menu and in the other an austere menu. The decision about who gets a rich or poor meal depends on the dice that are rolled at the beginning of the banquet. This banquet has been held at the EAT ART Festival in Chalon in 1980, at the Cabinet Anatomique in Montbéliard, in 1994 and at the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, in 1998.