In traditional accounts of the senses, taste is predicated on direct physical contact. We perceive the world around us in all its diversity through the physical sensation of taste in the mouth and on the tongue. The exhibition at Museum Tinguely poses various questions concerning our many fields of taste-related experience: How do we perceive art made of foods and their specific nuances of taste? What happens when our mouth and tongue suddenly take centre stage in the art experience? Can artworks address the sense of taste even without direct physical contact to the viewer? Can gustatory experiences be described and translated into pictures? Can flavour serve as a medium of artistic expression and creativity?

«Amuse-bouche. The Taste of Art» includes allegorical depictions of the sense of taste by Baroque masters, works by avant-garde artists of the early 20th century and exhibits from the 1960s and ’70s. The main focus is on a representative selection of paintings, photographs, sculptures, video works and installations from the past thirty years, all of which address the ingestion and tasting of food in a variety of ways.

Some of the works on display can be tasted during special guided tours and performances. On particular days, visitors can sample edible plants in the Hortus Deliciarum, an installation- and performance-based project by the Portuguese artist Marisa Benjamim, or the monumental participatory works made of gingerbread cookies by the Australian artist Elizabeth Willing. Sauerkraut juice labelled «Brine and Punishment» features in a large-scale installation by Slavs and Tatars, a Berlin-based artists’ collective. This sharp-tasting power drink provides a sensory experience within the artist’s philosophical engagement with the many-layered meanings and interpretations of fermentation and «going sour».

Current socio-political issues are also addressed by the Berlin-based Nigerian artist Emeka Ogboh in his ongoing project Sufferhead Original. In the Basel edition of this stout beer that keeps changing its taste, Ogboh once again raises the provocative question: «Who’s afraid of black?» The show also includes works in different media where tastes are merely evoked in the viewer’s imagination.

Lua Leirner shows our deaf visitors from near and far the special exhibtion regarding the taste of art in german sign language.