Eat to live or live to eat? This is the question...

Food is beautiful, food is good but this is not about semantics it's all about the way we live. Food is also inspirational, just think about Marcel's Proust "A la recherché du temps perdu" and his madeline. Food can bring back memories, food has amazing colours  but food can also be a guilty pleasure.

I discovered a beautiful food market in Barcelona, I mean literary beautiful food, the colours I have seen in St. Josef Mercat "La  Boqueria" were absolutely fantastic. Who hasn't read " Eat, Pray, Love"? I totally agree, food has also healing powers and especially Italian food as all Italian meals look like they have been specifically designed for you. But  my God this place will make you feel in the mood for food even if you've eaten 10 minutes before entering this Mercat.  

Peter Bruegel's canvases illustrate the fabulous food from the Renaissance in a perfect trompe l'oeil. Rembrandt has also illustrated this sensory pleasure in his works and let's not forget about  Andy Warhol and his silkscreen bananas. Fruits enter the music world through an album cover made by Andy Warhol for The Velvet Underground.

Food inspired product design, in the 1970 Sergio Asti designed a " Profiterole lamp" for Martinelli Luce. Julien de Repentigny and Gabriel Lefebre have done an absolutely amazing milk packing concept.  Food inspired the film industry. The colour ways of La Boqueria brought back a memory form my past, when I was living in Bucharest. On a very late summer evening I have seen a beautiful but disturbing firm directed by Peter Greenaway, film in which  one can totally feel Jean Paul Gautier's touch. The perfectly made abstract concept looks like it is part of a  painting made by Hieronymus Bosch.  This film was made the same way a painter paints his canvas.

Food has inspired Fashion. In 2009 Aghata Riuz  ( Prada) presents a collection at Milan Fashion Week in which some of the clothes are decidedly food-inspired. She even puts baguettes on the models' heads. McQueen has a collection inspired by a Butcher's Apron, and Lady Gaga was seen wearing a Meat Dress at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2010. Food is definitely inspirational!

 

copyright Laura Cremene March 2012