Our favorite Basque museum, Ur Mara Museoa, held its eighth Slow Art Day in 2023 and, like they have done in the past, they arranged a full day of slow looking, cooking, eating, and dancing.
The art came from five artists inspired by the French ecological movement of the 1990s, which sought to oppose the consumerist and speculative art market, and to instead advocate for ecological aesthetic values such as recycling and craftsmanship.
The five artists represented included:
Uxue Lasa (sculpture) Anton Mendizabal (sculpture) Myrian Loidi Zulet (textile) Mari Jose Lacadena (therapeutic art) Eduardo Arreseigor (various art)
Further, a lecture by Juan Tomas Olazagirre – “La notación musical” – was held before the end-of-day special dinner (the dinner known as “community food”).
Click the above photo to watch a video excerpt.
Below is the promotional flyer they used to spread the word about their Slow Art Day.
Someday the Slow Art Day HQ team will finally make the trek to Ur Mara Museo so we can participate in their amazing daylong celebration of art, food, and community. We look forward to what they come up with for 2024.
For the first-stage, MART invited the Slow Food producers to a private event in order to experience slow looking with the works of art shown below.
“Spiralando sull’Arena di Verona”, by Renato Di Bosso, 1935 (from the permanent collection)
“L’incantesimo dell’amore e la primavera della vita” by Galileo Chini, 1914 (from the temporary exhibition on Klimt and Italian Art)
“Spiralando sull’Arena di Verona”, by Renato Di Bosso. 1935.
Left panel detail from “L’incantesimo dell’amore e la primavera della vita” by Galileo Chini. 1914.
Right panel detail from “L’incantesimo dell’amore e la primavera della vita” by Galileo Chini. 1914.
Visitors looking at “L’incantesimo dell’amore e la primavera della vita” by Galileo Chini (1914) for Slow Art Day at MART 2023
For the second stage held about a week later, MART invited the public to the same slow looking experience with the same works of art.
This time, however, the Slow Food producers held a food tasting afterwards that featured foods they chose to pair with the art based on things like color and emotion. During the tasting, the Slow Food collective talked about their choices in the pairings.
Wow! What a great design for Slow Art Day.
We encourage museums around the world to do something similar: partner with a local Slow Food organization.
Slow Art collaboration with Slow Food at MART 2023
Slow Food tasting as part of MART’s Slow Art Day 2023
Not surprisingly, the MART hosts (Monica Sperandio, Social Media Representative, and Denise Bernabe, Membership Coordinator), reported that the event was a success on all fronts:
We were very satisfied with the experience and the collaboration as Slow Art and Slow Food have very similar ethics and visions, and we were able to combine two different but similar pleasures of life such as art and quality food.
Monica Sperandio
At Slow Art Day HQ, we love the partnership with Slow Food.
We (one of us is based in Italy) hope to visit MART in the future, and get a chance to see and taste the art and food ourselves.
And, of course, we are eager to see what unique design MART comes up with for Slow Art Day 2024.
-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane and Phyl
P.S. Stay up to date with upcoming events at MART via their Instagram and Facebook pages.
