An artist of international renown, Daniel Spoerri (1930) was a member of Nouveau Réalisme and a promotor of Eat Art. He is famous for his ‘snare-pictures’ produced after lunches and dinners, and made up of the leftovers of food, cutlery and glasses glued directly onto the tables and then displayed vertically on the wall. Waste, leftovers and the memory of an action thus become art; the remainders of the event are handed over to posterity with a new lease of life. The film Resurrection (16 mm film, b/w, sound, running time c. 9 minutes, 1968-1969, courtesy of the artist), produced by Spoerri in collaboration with Tony Morgan (1938-2004), is the backwards moving ‘story’ of a beefsteak, showing its creation, consumption and defecation; a product is thus ‘re-generated’, along a path leading to an ‘original’ state, both on an object and a filmic level, without overlooking the sacred and ritual nature of the meal, apart from its nutritional, vital value. The film is screened inside the toilet of the castle. By virtue of the theme addressed, the work is very much aligned with the philosophy of The Shit Museum and indeed that of the objects produced in Merdacotta® including items of tableware, such as plates, bowls, jugs, cups – not to mention the toilet bowl, one of the ‘icons’ of the project – to be found in various rooms throughout the Museum.
Gaspare Luigi Marcone (October 2017)
