Performance, installation, video. 2008. For Manifesta 7.

Art Flavours involved the creation of new flavours of gelato with flavours inspired by curatorial concepts and terms from contemporary art. This process was documented on video and the completed work shown as both video-installation and as an occasional performance intervention as part of Manifesta 7, in which samples of the gelato are given free to the public.

At the heart of the work’s creation were a series of interactions between the artist, a gelato maker (Osvaldo Castellari, based in Mori, near Rovereto) and the Italian critic/curator Roberto Pinto. Through the process of the work Pinto presented a selection of concepts or themes drawn from the discussion of contemporary art (The Body, The Archive, The Spectacle and Memory) to Castellari, who in turn interpreted them, transforming his understanding into corresponding flavours.

Staging an encounter between popular confectionary and art practice, Art Flavours plays with the possibility (and impossibility) of translating the academic/specialised language of the art world into new edibles for the public.

Art Flavours reflects Etchells’ interest  in the interface between different discourses and cultural frames (in this case - art, confectionary and commerce) and the potential for communication and miscommunication between them.