Dieter Roth
Schokoladenmeer (1970) is one of a long series of works in which Dieter Roth used edible and organic materials such as sugar, bread, spices, sausages, cheese, sour milk, mould, excrement and chocolate. For this particular work, Roth shredded the manuscript of an unpublished novel and used the strips of paper and squares of chocolate to make a composition. The result is a sculpture consisting of squares of chocolate piled on top of each other to form numerous columns on a flat base, mixed with the strips of typed paper. In Schokoladenmeer, Roth pushes his ideas about the non-existence of the eternal artwork and about the immutability of art to their logical conclusions. The squares of Lindt chocolate remind us that artistic creation only makes sense if it is connected to life, and that even though all artworks are mutable and transitory by nature, this fact becomes even more obvious when organic materials are used.
Exhibition
‘MACBA Collection: Prelude. Poetic Intention’. A group exhibition that aims to reverse the dramaturgy of the museum by putting the artwork at the centre so we can address its will, its energy and its poetic intention.
