Untitled views
From April 9th, 2018, the well-known restaurant on Via Solferino in Milan presents a new project devoted to contemporary art involving two of the most influential Italian living artists: Goldschmied & Chiari. For this renewed encounter between art and cuisine, Brendan Becht – founder of Zazà Ramen – displays, on the walls of his restaurant, works with a strong visual impact: large and medium-sized mirrors with images of coloured smokes.
The works selected for Zazà Ramen are part of a new project, Untitled Views, presented in 2017 at Renata Fabbri Gallery in Milan. They are visions of coloured nebulae shaped by the dance of smoke-bombs. These photographs, impressed on mirrors of different formats with an innovative technique, document the casual result of gestural and performative actions by the artists.
By projecting iridescent smoke in the air, Goldschmied & Chiari create abstract compositions that evoke the first motion picture special effects, like Georges Méliès’, and the cloudy skies of the eighteenth-century vedutism, in particular the ones by Canaletto. As the title Untitled Views suggests, the smoky surfaces are never the same: the printed mirrors change continuously by interacting both with the space, subject to different illuminations during the day, and the viewer who, reflected in the image, becomes an active part of the work.
The views by Goldschmied & Chiari transform Zazà Ramen’s environment: the new scenery is populated by fumes of colour. After Jan van der Ploeg’s geometric wall paintings and Job Koelewijn’s drawn mantras, Brendan Becht’s restaurant takes on a new guise, taking part in the dinners of its customers with discretion and style. A further confirmation of how contemporary art can successfully dialogue with cuisine in non-conventional environments, opening up new perspectives of fruition and unprecedented interpretations. With this new exhibition, Zazà Ramen proposes itself as a meeting place for protagonists of contemporary international creation, combining the magical visions of Goldschmied & Chiari with its excellent dishes.