Argentinian transforms NY’s Met rooftop into banquet
‘Vegetarians dig their desserts’
NEW YORK, April 15, (Agencies): An Argentinian sculptor has transformed the roof garden at New York’s famed Metropolitan Museum of Art into a fantasy banquet scene overlooking the glittering Manhattan skyline for the summer season.
The installation, which opened Friday, is centered around nine white tables set for dinner with sculptures replicating objects from the museum’s vast collections, including ancient Egypt, African and medieval art.
Added to the mix are white human figures — real-life models scanned, enlarged or reduced, then formatted by 3-D printer — the same technique used to produce replicas from the museum’s collection.
Created by Adrian Villar Rojas and called “The Theater of Disappearance,” the installation fuses different eras, civilizations, the animate and inanimate to reflect on what the purpose of a museum means today and what an artifact means behind a glass case.
At one table is the figure of a knight — lying as if a statue on his tomb — being embraced by a young modern girl wearing sneakers, watched over by an otter.
“The human figures are activating figures that had not been activated in sometimes thousands of years. The activation idea is one of the things that the artist was really excited about,” said curator Beatrice Galilee.
The installation appeared so real and inviting that visitors Friday often tried to sit on the white chairs — not allowed. “Please don’t touch,” said Galilee. “It’s a tension for sure that you’re not invited to the dinner.”
The Met’s rooftop joint has also been redesigned to merge into the installation, down to the menu, which includes treats chosen by the artist.
Born in 1980, Villar Rojas has said he is inspired by comic books and grunge music. He has had recent solo exhibitions at the Serpentine Gallery in London, the Highline in New York in 2013, and in Paris in 2011.
For the Met project he immersed himself in the museum’s history and its collections, talking to curators, researchers, conservators and imaging specialists.
The installation is scheduled to remain open until October 29, weather permitting.
Pret a Manger says its two vegetarian-only shops sell far more desserts than its other stores — a quirk it says may indicate that people want to treat themselves more after they feel they’ve had a healthy meal.
The sandwich chain opened its second vegetarian-only location this month in its home city of London. While the sample size is small, CEO Clive Schlee says “it would be safe to say that dessert sales are double what they are at normal Prets.”
Pret touts its use of natural and organic ingredients and offers meatless options at its other stores, but the separate stores are intended to win favor among younger people that the company says are driving a growing interest in vegetarianism. Pret says it may open a vegetarian outpost in New York in the next year as well — and expects desserts to be big sellers.
“There’s definitely a tendency — if you’ve eaten a healthy vegetarian meal, you’re definitely entitled to a healthy vegetarian dessert,” Schlee says.
Another reason for the higher dessert sales could be that non-vegetarian customers might be more willing to try sweets that don’t look so different from those that do contain eggs, butter or dairy says Michelle Cehn, founder of the website World of Vegan. Or there could be a “relief factor” for people to enjoy certain treats, says Bruce Friedrich, executive director for the Good Food Institute, which promotes plant-based alternatives to animal products.
Pret A Manger has more than 460 locations, including 85 in New York, Chicago, Boston and Washington, DC. Schlee didn’t provide details about the possible Veggie Pret in New York, but did say the company is planning an event in April ahead of a potential permanent location.