To the Table
In the three-part exhibition series Mahlzeit!, the Gunzenhauser Museum explores the theme of food in art. The third exhibition, To the Table, examines the social and cultural dimensions of eating.
Images of shared meals are a familiar motif in art history. The exhibition Zu Tisch focuses on depictions of eating and communal meals. It explores how culture surrounding food and drink takes shape and at what point eating itself becomes a cultural phenomenon.
Drawing on the collections of the Chemnitz Art Collections and supplemented by external loans, the exhibition presents works of art ranging from Classical Modernism to the present day, in which the table functions not merely as a place for eating, but becomes a setting for social and societal orders, cultural and religious codes, and socio-economic conditions.
Rituals and Traditions
Food is closely linked to rituals and traditions. Dining culture, table manners, the choice of food and drink, and the table setting are all imbued with meaning, which is reflected in art in a variety of ways.
The exhibition Zu Tisch (To the Table) shows how tables and food are frequently used as symbols in art to refer to cultural, social or religious contexts, and presents works that explore different dining cultures and religious practices. Alongside photographs by Benyamin Reich that explore the intersection of Jewish traditions and queer identity, visitors will encounter Margot Pilz’s feminist interpretation of the Last Supper and nuns playing cards.
Food Cultures
Depictions of food in art reveal cultural diversity and the transmission of culture and identity. Visitors to the exhibition are invited into Hiền Hoàng’s personal ‘Asia Bistro’ and to view Ülkü Süngün’s photographic installations of everyday objects laid out on tables, sourced from Turkish shops. Always shaped by transcultural developments, food cultures are in a state of constant change. As a medium, food can build communities, foster exchange and open up cultures to one another. At the same time, artistic perspectives reveal how food and eating habits can be devalued through mechanisms of ‘othering’ and lead to exclusion.
Social Structures of Eating
Shared meals are more than just the functional sharing of food. They are always social situations as well. Social patterns and hierarchies are formed and reproduced at the table; this is where a connection between the individual and the group is forged. Loneliness and social exclusion are therefore particularly evident during mealtimes. In art, the theme of loneliness in dining scenarios is a recurring motif. Whilst Daniel Spoerri and Fern Liberty Kallenbach Campbell immortalise the traces of convivial meals and everyday life through assemblage and textile sculpture, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Johannes Grützke devise communal dining scenarios. In contrast, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Helmut Kolle depict dining moments characterised by loneliness. In Raga Rahman’s video work To Fill the Void, I Go to the Supermarket, eating becomes an integral part of diaspora culture as a vehicle for memory and a means of comfort.
Socio-economic aspects of food: between slow and fast food
Today, food cultures oscillate between global standardisation and regional traditions, between ‘slow food’ as an expression of community and self-care and ‘fast food’ as a symbol of an anonymous and functional way of life. The exhibition juxtaposes these two opposites and showcases artistic works that address socio-economic differences, view table manners as a reflection of social conditions, and raise questions about prosperity and deprivation. In the exhibition, Anna and Bernhard Blume’s series Mahlzeit (Mealtime) depicts pots exploding amidst the staid routine of married life. Janina Stach’s elegant knife blocks are juxtaposed with an interactive chicken nugget box by Julian Revelle.
Special:
Do you have any tableware that’s looking for a new home? There’s a tableware swap table in the exhibition. Here, you can swap the dishes you’ve brought with you for another item. Take home what you like – perhaps your new pieces even have a story to tell?
Overview of the Mahlzeit! exhibition series:
Feinkunsthalle
7 March – 14 June 2026
Inspired by the spatial structure of a grocery store, the exhibition spaces of the Feinkunsthalle invite visitors to discover the finest foods and delicacies from the collections of the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz.
Serving Gender
4 July – 1 November 2026
The second exhibition explores the relationship between gender roles and food. It presents artworks from across different periods that connect labour and care, bodies and social roles with the preparation and distribution of food, and invites visitors to reinterpret visual narratives from a feminist perspective.
Zu Tisch (At the Table)
27 November 2026 – 4 April 2027
The third part of the exhibition series focuses on the social and cultural aspects of food in art: convivial moments, social situations, communal contexts, as well as cultural traditions, celebrations, and rituals. At its core is the question of how culture around eating and drinking takes shape — and when food itself becomes a cultural phenomenon.
