rituals | FOOD | preserve

Two figures dressed in black stand at the entrance to the Academy. Their faces, necks, and hands are golden. Between the two is a table covered with a floor-length white tablecloth and salt. A large mirror stands on it, next to a big loaf of bread. Guests are asked to break off a piece of bread. Later, Sonja and Martin lead their visitors through the Art Academy to the dining room in a procession.

On the way, honey & bunny distribute wrapped cloth napkins. Within these are rubber gloves, a spoon, a Bavarian staghorn knife and a small piece of paper with a number written on it. The floor of the room is completely covered with earth. The walls are covered with hand-written texts on food and sustainability. In the centre rises a nine-meter long, one hundred and twenty-centimetre wide, and sixty-centimetre high mound that resembles a megalithic tomb. Two skeletons and funerary objects consisting of cult objects from 2018 , as well as edible, symbolic objects can be seen on it, as if it was an excavation site. The hill is flanked to the left and right by equally long and wide tables. There are fifteen chairs per table, the backs of which are numbered. The guests are asked to their places, where they will meet people they didn’t arrive with. Maybe they will leave together later.

The two tables are divided into strips by width from left to right. Every thirty centimetres, the tables are alternately covered in salt and earth. In the middle, preserving jars full of water, wine, and pickles stand in a long row. Each jar contains a different filling. Thus, the row of glasses creates a colour gradient. Each visitor will find two small plates in front of them, each placed on salt and earth. One of them contains three different salty appetizers. The other plate is empty.

Honey & bunny urge our table community to put on the rubber gloves. Now, each and every one can decide for themselves: Which of the three appetizers do they give to the left table companion and which to the right one? Finally, they themselves can eat the leftover piece. Those at the table open the preserving jars and share their contents fraternally among themselves. Bread is passed around. Whoever wants it tears some off.

At the end of the room is a table that is completely covered in salt. Honey & bunny ask the guests to this table. On the salt lie small shovels and forks. The guests dig. They find pickled fish. Now follows what must: the main course. We want meat! Again, they have to dig. The excavation site is destroyed. Our hunger destroys history. A handful of guests rummages through the earth with spoons and they will make a find. Clay spheres are freed from the soil. We open them with hammers and find roasted potatoes and onions. A suckling pig is cut open. Let's leave the rituals behind. Let's use our fingers. The breaking of conventions makes the community grow together. Together we break unwritten laws and the fun of it connects us forever. At the end of this fun the artists distribute gingerbread hearts.