FEAST OF THE RED HERRING* (2017)
*FORTH
Moderna Museet, Malmö
Moderna Museet, Malmö
Digitally altered painting originally by the 14th Century flemish painter Joachim Beuckelaer
Section of censored and redacted information from FOTRH planning documents
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Fifteen artists were invited to create and imagine every aspect of a "secret society" dinner table setting : the table, plates, cutlery, pots, placemats, cups, menu, flowers, masks, food, attire, toasts, sounds, and smells.
Imitating the concept of a “secret society dinner”, occult club, or medieval feast, the ‘Feast of the Red Herring’ staged a secret dinner where 14 people were invited to discuss topics surrounding secrecy and transparency; it created a physical place where the roles of ordinary society may have been reversed or temporarily lifted.
'The Feast of the Red Herring' took the form of a social game or riddle as a method for playtesting the mechanisms of secrecy and transparency. Whilst planning this project the Artist and everyone invited to be involved with the project were kept in the dark and unaware of each other's activities; even Moderna Museet were not given any information about who would be included.
The secret dinner took place at night behind the closed doors of Moderna Museet after opening hours and when the museum was closed to the general public. There gathered 14 people including myself who proceeded to hold conversations, eat and drink to plot and deceive, conspire and collaborate in secrecy and opacity.
Imitating the concept of a “secret society dinner”, occult club, or medieval feast, the ‘Feast of the Red Herring’ staged a secret dinner where 14 people were invited to discuss topics surrounding secrecy and transparency; it created a physical place where the roles of ordinary society may have been reversed or temporarily lifted.
'The Feast of the Red Herring' took the form of a social game or riddle as a method for playtesting the mechanisms of secrecy and transparency. Whilst planning this project the Artist and everyone invited to be involved with the project were kept in the dark and unaware of each other's activities; even Moderna Museet were not given any information about who would be included.
The secret dinner took place at night behind the closed doors of Moderna Museet after opening hours and when the museum was closed to the general public. There gathered 14 people including myself who proceeded to hold conversations, eat and drink to plot and deceive, conspire and collaborate in secrecy and opacity.
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After the secret dinner there was a public symposium (a transparent conversation) where the 14 invitees were brought back to the table to talk about the project in relation to their experiences and understandings about the differences between the private and the public and the secret and transparent.
Following this symposium there was two workshops that took place around the table again that were sign-up only for participants to re-play and re-imagine the secret dinner through roleplay and through the use of Nordic LARP (Live Action Role Play) techniques. This was only documented through the collection of the left over pieces of gold and transparent notepaper.
Following this symposium there was two workshops that took place around the table again that were sign-up only for participants to re-play and re-imagine the secret dinner through roleplay and through the use of Nordic LARP (Live Action Role Play) techniques. This was only documented through the collection of the left over pieces of gold and transparent notepaper.
LIST OF CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS & TITLES
Kah Bee Chow
Table Decoration
‘Blue’
Desmond Church
Masks (pigmented beeswax, animal hair, dried thistles)
Sam Conran
An algorithm that encrypts secret or private conversations in a method that uses deterministic chaos inputs, Euclidean rhythm necklaces and random seeds to act as the encryption keys.
‘Secure Key’
Ingrid Furre
Plates
‘Sandsnails’
Martha Hviid
Candles
‘Allihopa’
Maria Norrman
Garb
‘Ceremonial cordons’
Olof Nimar
Place mats
‘Bouquet’
Petter Dahlstrøm Persson &
Felix Dahlstrøm Persson
Protein, Fat , Carbs
‘Rundad vanligen helt underjordisk bildning (Rounded, Usually Subterranean Formation)’
Tine Maria Damgaard
Table decoration
‘Mid-table conversation pieces’
John B McKenna
Live coding
‘Djinn Dave’
Max Ockborn
Table
‘Table for communication’
Lucia Quevedo
Cutlery
‘I pretended to be good at it so i could talk to you’
Wilfred Wagner
Bill books
‘thing/name: Bill book’
Albin Werle
Bottles, elixirs, coins, game board, mythology
‘The Conspiracy of Flowers’
LIST OF DINNER ATTENDEES
Sarah Jury
Kotada Ab Yonus
Nina Runa Essendrop
Kristoffer Orum
Keenan Allen
Ana María Bermeo Ujueta
Kevin Malcolm
Moa Alskog
Anna Berg
Nils Svensk
Julia Rutt
Elena Tzotzi
Francis Patrick Brady
Henning Lundkvist