The project Consume Art is the first in a series of works in which I used candy as a material to explore the position of the artist within cultural institutions, as well as the role and status of museums in contemporary consumer society. The project is based on the idea that art can be composed of any material, while simultaneously questioning how different materials — mostly impermanent and consumable — carry meaning and symbolic value.
For the initial phase of the project, presented at Gallery Karas in Zagreb, I collected candies by sending an email with a short description of the project and an open call to everyone who supports the idea that human beings are creative by nature, inviting them to participate by sending the artist two bags of candy. From the candies arriving from all over the world, an ambient installation was created, consisting of a large spiral and ten small boxes labeled with the following concepts: love, fear, conflict, art, war, friendship, peace, pain, money, happiness.
While preparing the exhibition at Gallery OK in Rijeka, I invited artists who had previously exhibited in the gallery to participate in the project by filling a glass jar – placed on a gallery pedestal and labeled with their name – with candies and writing their artistic credo. Visitors were invited to taste the candies and, in this way, to embody art.
