BACKGROUND
DO YOU THINK THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO EAT ANDY WARHOL IF YOU EAT A CAMPBELL'S SOUP CAN?
Sandro Dernini, as part of his Ph.D. Program at the New York University Art and Art Education Department., on February 18, 1987, in New York, at Patrizia Anichini Gallery, held a performance staged as an inquiry for the course E.90.2605“ Phenomenology and the Arts,” conducted by prof. David W. Ecker. The performance was inspired by the upcoming symposium on "The Dematerialization of Art", organized on 24-26 February by the New York University International Center for Advanced Studies in Art (ICASA), in which Sandro Dernini as graduate assistant was part of the organization.
Willoughby Sharp, Joan Waltmath, Donald Sheridan, Peter Grass, Helen Valentin, Bernd Naber, Franco Ciarlo, Lynne Kanter, Souyun Yi, Carol Drury, Amy Paskin, Christian Chiansa, Patrizia Anichini, were invited by Sandro Dernini to eat a Campbell soup can.
Then, they were invited to answer to a written questionary made by Sandro as part of his phenomenological inquiry:
Do you think it is possible that you have eaten Andy Warhol when before you have eaten that Campbell soup two minutes ago?
Suspend your belief before to answer to these questions: Answer- yes or nor?
What you mean?
How do you know?
How was the taste?
Is it true or not?
Who was the subject?
Who was the object?
Description of the experience
As napkins near plates, brochures of the Dematerialization of Art Symposium where displaced on the table, in order to be read during the digestion.
From the replies to the questionnaires, it came out that majority of participants believed that they have “aten” Andy Warhol during their ritual performance. Few days after Andy Warhol died on 22 February 1987.
The ICASA Dematerialization of Art symposium opened on 24 February , featuring as panelists: Jean Baudrillard, Donald Kuspit, Nam June Paik, Vito Acconci, Judy Barry, Dennis Oppenheim, Billy Kluver, Nancy Holt, Paul Taylor, Bruce Breland, George Chaikin, Flor Bex, Rene Berger, Eika Billeter, Alan Bowness, Julie Lawson and Hervè Fischer.
Nam June Paik, by answering to a question from the audience, posed by Lenny Horowitz and Stephen Di Lauro as Plexus participants, about the feasibility that Andy Warhol was eaten during that performance conducted by Sandro Dernini, replied that it was possible that Warhol has been dematerialized in the intentional act of the artists of eating his commodity art symbol.
On 20 February 1988, on the anniversary of the 1987 Andy Warhol's Dematerialition performance, Sandro Dernini, organized the event “A Plexus Redefinition of an Andy Warhol Campbell Soup Can”, at CUANDO Community Civic Cultural Center, in 9 Second Avenue, New York.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DREIb4rRlrs&list=PLphpm68Zwk90RW3fml1DNKRrnAN6ZngA3&index=20&t=339s
This performance was inspired to Sandro by the second ICASA symposium on "The Redefinition of Art in the Collision of Cultures in the Post-Modern World", organized in the same period at New York University, in which he as a graduate assistant to the director Angiola Churchill was still collaborating.
In New York, on September 23, 1988, Sandro Dernini presented his limited edition of 100 labels of Plexus 23s Campboll Soup Can, that he conceived for his 1987 Andy Warhol’s dematerialization. The printing in serigraphy of the 100 labells he commissioned to Maggie Reilly of the Ram Studio and were designed by Robert Kern.
Serigraphed labels in paper, 9 cm x 21 cm
Plexus Campboll’s Soup Cans, a limited edition 100/100
Conceptual artwork by Sandro Dernini, 1988
Intentionally, at the center of the red and white Campbell Soup Can label, there was apported a little fine difference, instead of Campbell’s, it was written with the same character “Campboll’s.” Between the red and white stripes, there was a circular black frame within the white image of the head of Andy Warhol, on top of which, in the red stripe, was written “Dematerialized,” and under of which, in the white one, it was written “Andy Warhol.” At the center in the bottom, it was written “PLEXUS.”
On the top left side, there was a rectangular white frame with written “Ingredients: History of Modern Art, Volume One, FoodArt International.”Symmetrically at the other top right side, there was a rectangular white frame with written “Direction: Eating Art.”
Limited edition 100/100, alluminium Cans 7 cm x 10 cm. 1988 - 2021
Sandro's performance was part of his paper " Art Logic versus rational inquiry: Its implication in "Eating Art" by digesting Art History" that he was preparing for the NYU PhD course on Aesthetic Inquiry E10.2137 by prof. David W. Ecker.
