On the table. Semiotics of food

The Reina Sofía Museum Library and Documentation Centre is putting on this exhibition that proposes a critical reading of capitalist cycles to show the tensions surrounding food and advocate for greater eco-social awareness in its production, distribution and consumption. It also highlights how food is rooted in human bonds, its sentimental dimension and its ability to bring people together, evoke memories and create new stories. The exhibition runs from 21 June to 20 September, and admission is free of charge.

The starting point of On the table. Semiotics of food is the video performance Semiotics of the Kitchen 1975 by Martha Rosler, from the Reina Sofía Museum Collection, in which the artist presents, in alphabetical order and as a semiotic exercise, a series of objects typical of this space within the home to denounce the socially assigned role of women in the domestic environment.

This exhibition, however, draws attention to an essential element in the kitchen but one that is not visible in Rosler’s video performance: food.

With exhibits from the Museum’s Library and Documentation Centre's collection, the exhibition includes a selection of visual and textual materials such as photographs, books, poems, postcards, recipes and objects, organised in an alphabetical glossary as in Rosler’s piece, investigating the cultural, social and political dimensions of food to explore in depth our complex relationship with food.

Image Credits:

Faustí Llucià, photograph by José Pérez Ocaña and friends for the Sunday supplement El Periódico, 1982. © Faustí Llucià Figueras, VEGAP, Madrid, 2024