Atlantica - 01.12.2004, Blaðsíða 38

36 AT L A N T I C A
Food as a consumer product has become
Martí Guixé’s playground for exploring
contemporary issues such as communica-
tion, information flow and the ephemeral
nature of modern times. But how does fast
food connect to all this?
Generally, fast food is looked down
upon and considered unworthy of the
sophisticated talents of master chefs. It is
rarely associated with healthy and creative
cooking even though it adjusts well to
daily contemporary life. It buys us valu-
able time and enables us to do other
things at the same time as eating. It also
has a definite novelty value, in a different
way than sophisticated cooking. The latter
ambitiously strives to surprise people with
unexpected colours, textures, flavours and
temperatures although it is served accord-
ing to the strict codes of the 19th century.
Fast food, on the other hand, allows for
new combinations, new situations and
new codes when eaten in the company of
others. One famous example is when the
Fourth Earl of Sandwich invented the sand-
wich purely so as not to be distracted from
gambling by having to sit down for a meal.
Dick and Maurice McDonald invented a
method to keep hamburgers warm and
French fries crispy so that they could serve
people in just fifteen seconds.
Architect Martí Guixé inherited this quest
for novelty and shook up people’s conven-
tional ideas with small dishes like Spamt
from the series Techno Tapas. Spamt
is short for “ es pá amb tomaquet” in
Catalonian and means bread with toma-
toes, a traditional Catalonian tapas dish.
Guixé’s version is designed so that it can
be consumed in an easy manner whilst
working at a computer without risking
pieces of bread or tomato falling onto the
keyboard with horrifying consequences.
Consumer conditions are taken even fur-
ther with his suggestion for Pharma Food
where a person enters a space containing
the atomic particles of fast food. As soon
as we inhale these biological compounds
which include all necessary nutrients for
our well being, we are fed and a warm feel-
ing of comfort sweeps through our bodies.
Pharma Food is a pure action where form
disappears. A definition which reflects
Guixé’s philosophy: “I am an industrial
designer and I hate objects. On the other
hand I have to use them. That’s why I’ve
been trying for a long time to destroy the
form of the object and design it to become
pure action.”
THE ALMOND FORMULA
To approach each design project, Guixé
designed a formula based on almonds.
Almonds have a high nutritional value
and have for centuries symbolised the
purity and innocence of the Virgin Mary.
They are therefore a great snack to carry
on journeys, both for body and soul. Each
consumer product that Guixé plays with
has this kind of ambiguity. In Sponsored
Food, ready made food such as potato
chips, omelettes and beans are sponsored
by brands such as Fuji, Calvin Klein and
IBM to lower prices. This is useful for both
consumer and advertiser, when the brand
name is consumed with cheap and healthy
food.
Guixé explores the way we obtain informa-
tion in another project. The Information
Cake tells us its nutritional value. It’s round
and looks like a pie chart . The differ-
ent colours are based on the arithmetical
information divulging its nutritional com-
position.
The action/ ceremony of eating has
both a beginning and an end. With his
designer tapas, Guixé gives us food for
thought – allowing us to rethink our eating
habits. Our consumer society produces an
enormous amount of excess packaging
and waste. Guixé’s position on the object
and its destruction is therefore neither
unrealistic or contradictory but full of mor-
alistic values. It is not a final solution to
“decorate” the metropoles of the world
with huge garbage disposals separating
packaging for recycling. Silver Pack is just
one of the examples Guixé uses on edible
packaging. It is made from edible matter
shaped into conventional packaging. Only
by eating it and swallowing, the consumer
aids its deconstruction.
At the hands of Martí Guixé, the human
being is nourished by a healthy combina-
tion of nutrients and images taken from
our society. Different elements and con-
sumer conditions merge in the food, nour-
ishing the individual.
Halldóra Arnardóttir is an art historian and
freelance writer living in Barcelona.
Translated by Anna Björnsson.
Architect Martí Guixé is renowned for the interiors of various Camper stores, and also for his unconventional
ideas reflected in his modern take on the Spanish tapas. His designer “tapas”, which adjust to all kinds of con-
temporary situations such as surfing the internet, scuba diving and the modern demand for readily available
nutritional information, have earned him fame.
a
Fast food as a way of life
G
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xé
By Halldóra Arnarsdóttir
Photos by Inga Knölke
36 Guixé.indd 36 23.10.2004 16:05:32