Tender Touches was an immersive exhibition taking shape as an art café where everything – from the food to the furniture – is an artwork. Dissolving boundaries between the gallery, studio and dining room, the exhibition used food as a medium to question the dynamics of exhibition spaces.

Throughout the six-week duration of the show, Inês Neto dos Santos ran the café, cooking daily from a weekly-changing menu, which was drawn from her own practice as well as being inspired by the practices of the participating artists. Visitors were invited to use their senses to experience artworks as functional objects, and to engage with food as they might view art.

Experienced through vision, touch, sound and taste, the exhibition drew on the food-based practice of artist and co-curator Inês Neto dos Santos and the curatorial interests of founding director of Open Space and co-curator Huma Kabakcı. Tender Touches combined exhibition with hospitality, blending and overlapping their respective narratives and inherent gestures. Rules of conduct were blurred: sipping a coffee, stirring porridge or pouring a drink became opportunities for conceptual thinking and aesthetics. The café format was presented as a model for creative practice and public engagement. Tender Touches subverted the gallery space whilst existing as a fully functioning café.

The exhibition raised questions such as: what are the limits of an artwork? Can hospitality be a model for creative practice? What role does food play in this context? Can it help us understand, question or defy our surroundings?  This exhibition was part of Open Space’s new, annually recurring exhibition series Edible Goods, which explored food as a medium in contemporary art.

Tender Touches encompassed a series of tours, workshops and supper clubs, led by the participating artists, offering visitors the chance to interact with their work in engaging and unexpected ways.

Photo Credit: Tania Dolvers