Is hyperbole the best thing ever? Not any more. That title now passes to Trolley Gallery's art/dinner party, ManiFesten.
I get invited to quite a lot of stuff. Some of it's cool and some of it's not, but every now and again you hear about something that sounds pretty much like the best thing ever. ManiFesten – Trolley Gallery's latest project – is, as far as I can tell, all of my wildest dreams come true.
For six evenings this June Trolley Gallery is being transformed into a sort of art installation/restaurant. Each night 12 people dine in/on a sculptural construction by Robert Storey that plays with ideas of scale – the chairs are designed for giants and the table comes down from the ceiling. Artist Caroline Hobkinson has conceived the menu, which consists of a medievally-inspired banquet. Apparently, there's magic porridge, cheeses raining from the sky, fish jumping from the water to land at one's feet and freshly baked bread roles suspended in mid-air. It sounds incredible! So that's food and booze and artwork that'll be utterly magical – what's not to like?
In addition, performances curated by Ian Giles are taking place on Arnold Circus (which is apparently 100 years old this year) and diners also get to take home editioned works by Trolley Gallery artists Boo Saville and Henry Hudson and a limited edition napkin by Hobkinson.
See what I mean – amazing, right? Intrigued, I caught up with Trolley Gallery's Co-Director Hannah Watson and the mind behind the menu, Caroline Hobkinson (who once floated 700 meringues through the Barbican). Hannah explains that the concept stems from a whole range of different points of inspiration. Having dinner at artist Robert Storey's house in Shoreditch – he'd transformed it into a French bistro, complete with French magazines in the loo – and going on one of Caroline's gastronomic art tours of the area, Broken Biscuits, got Hannah a-thinking: “pop-up restaurants are so popular in London at the moment, but I actually wanted do something really special in the gallery itself. We have a huge oven in the gallery and pots and pans hanging up. People are always asking if we use it and we don't really, so this was perfect time to see it in action.”
“As a gallery,” Hannah continues, “we always do dinners when we open a show, and usually the artist is involved in some way, from doing special invitations to the food itself. For Henry Hudson's Hogarth-inspired show we created a Hogarthian feast, complete with pigs' heads decorating the tables and gin cocktails to start. And for Icelandic artist Shoplifter we did a black feast related to the 'black beast' she had created in the show. All the food was black, from spaghetti al nero di sepia to sloe gin jelly and black creme fraiche.” Funny how they never seem to ask me...
Anyway, I'm particular excited not just about the food and wine – although that does sound like even weirdo science-chef Heston Blumenthal would be impressed – but by the way in which Storey's artwork will affect the traditional dynamics of a dinner party. Caroline reckons it'll make people “look at dining and food from a different perspective – quite literally,” and Hannah agrees: “There will even be bells and buzzers to ask for wine and water, so I think it will be a lot of fun and a great way to interact with people you maybe don't know at the table as you share the whole experience.”
As Caroline puts it, “ManiFesten is like a treehouse fantasy, but it could feel ever so slightly unsettling – in a good way!” Needless to say, I'm so there it hurts. I haven't been this excited in years.
ManiFesten is at Trolley Gallery 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 9th, 10th, 11th June 2010.
Click here for tickets to ManiFesten, priced £69. Quick though, before I buy them all!
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