As an accompaniment to the exhibition “Antibodies. Works by Fernando & Humberto Campana 1989– 2009” the Vitra Design Museum showed the current project by Mike Meiré “Global Street Food” for the Dornbracht Edges series, which includes projects at the interface of architecture, design and art.

The exhibition project was presented for the first time as part of Passagen 2009 on the occasion of the imm Cologne and was to be seen from 11 June to 12 July 2009 in the Buckminster Fuller Dome on the Vitra Campus.

“Global Street Food” is dedicated to the fascination with improvised kitchens in public places. Urban fast food stations navigating the contrast between pragmatic dilettantism and complexity in the smallest of spaces. Mike Meiré is presenting several objects and street kitchens from different parts of the world in the Buckminster Fuller Dome: an exhibition depicting the sculptural quality of authentic objects and their cultural identity.

(Please click on one of the images below for an enlarged view.)

Here, the de-contextualisation permits an approach from various aspects: Of which materials is such a kitchen unit composed, what are the origins of the materials and how do they communicate? “In the same way that 'The Farm Project’ started by countering aesthetic minimalism in the kitchen, with these street sculptures, we now wish to give inspiration to a design that is more narrative. What happens when you place the technology on the outside, make it visible and create an object that represents a type of life situation, an organism in the tightest possible space? The kitchen as a place of social dynamics and transformation is such an organism. Miniaturisation, bringing together very different aspects, opens a new access, makes it possible to think about other processes. From this type of field research, I hope for a development that leads to other types of expression and to an aesthetic that looks for breaks in style.” (Mike Meiré)

Since 1996, Dornbracht, a leading international manufacturer of high-quality fittings and accessories for the bathroom and kitchen, has been continuously involved with interdisciplinary art and culture projects, and initiating its own projects with renowned artists. This multi-faceted cultural commitment is based on the idea that a company not only consists of its products and product communication but moreover, of a superordinate mental level, via which it identifies itself and commits itself socially. All the projects are documented on the website www.cultureprojects.com.

01_“Floating market” VIETNAM, Ho Chi Minh City

Sales boat, typical for the floating markets of Asia: A big blue wooden box placed in the centre of a simple wooden boat. On top of the box are custom-made storage areas for various soft drinks. The interior of the wooden box serves as a “warehouse”. In the front part of the boat, vegetables are hawked. In the back, a polystyrene box with roughly manufactured ladle made of metal, presumably for selling warm meals.

02_“Grill” UGANDA, Kampala

Mobile grill for goat’s meat. White, square grill box made of metal (approx. 40 x 40 cm), to which an old bicycle wheel with fork was welded at the front. Grill box closed on five sides, only opening to the rear. In the inside, three grill grates, original wooden skewers and forks. Inscription: “Goats Meat Muchomo”. 

03_“Cotton candy stand” ARGENTINA, Buenos Aires

Self-welded sales stand approx. two metres high in the pedestrian zone. Old parasol stand onto which four square tubes have been welded at regular intervals, into which the sticks of pink cotton candy are placed. Cotton candy in transparent plastic bags, so that it stays fresh for longer. 

04_ and 05_“Market stand” CHINA, Hong Kong

Nut stand from a market situation. Three big, round wire baskets as sales areas placed upon three completely different plastic buckets. Product information handwritten with red and black markers on old multi-wall sheets made of plastic. At the end of the market, the plastic buckets are also used to transport the goods. Completed by plastic stools for the sales lady. 

06_“Lollipop stand” ARGENTINA, Buenos Aires

Portable sales stand: Broom used for a purpose other then intended, where the bristles were replaced by a wooden block with bore holes. The homemade lollipops are stuck into these holes. The work area was a pedestrian zone in Buenos Aires. A travel bag served as the store.

07_“Cheese and Sausage stand” ARGENTINA, Buenos Aires

Selling sausage and cheese from a discarded shopping trolley, the sales area is a memo board, the sort used in offices. The last labelling in blue can still be read in many places. A white cloth serves as a cover. The shopping trolley basket serves as a depot for boxes with fresh goods and packaging foil. The handle casing has been scratched off, so you cannot tell which supermarket the shopping trolley originally came from.

08_ and 09_“Coffee Wagon” ARGENTINA, Buenos Aires

Self-welded, mobile wire basket wagon for selling coffee. At the top is a platform for at least a dozen thermos flasks. The flasks are all the same shape but in different colours. For transport and storage at the back of the wagon, there are three large plastic bags with the typical red-blue checked pattern seen all over the world. A hotchpotch of further accessories – for example the laminated menu of a restaurant as a saucer.

10_“Fruit salad stand” ARGENTINA, Buenos Aires

Polystyrene, placed on a stone wall at a busy location in the centre of the city. Cut pieces of fruit are sold in plastic beakers. Handwritten and stuck-on lettering “ENSALADA DE FRUTAS” (fruit salad) and two stuck-on plastic table sets with fruit still lifes as sandwich boards. An improvised umbrella secured to a stand by a rubber band serves as an umbrella and parasol. Photo: Tim Giesen

11_“Chopping block” CHINA, Hong Kong

Fish stand from a typical Chinese market. Wooden board, on which fish have their heads cut off and are gutted. This is done by a large knife with a wooden handle. A large rain barrel containing fresh water, from which water is taken to wash each fish and then poured out into the street. A bamboo basket lined with newspaper for the waste. Thin light-blue plastic bags, in which the fish is handed to customers, hang on the wall near the stand.

12_“Fruit and vegetable stand” NAMIBIA, Rundu

Stand for selling fruit to passing drivers on the side of the road in the Caprivi near the Angolan border. Two colourful metal bowls, one of which is placed upon a hollowed-out log, and is used as a millet mortar at other times of the day.

13_ and 14_“Terracotta chicken grill” VIETNAM, Ho Chi Minh City

Very big Terracotta pot, in which chickens, hung on the top edge by iron hooks, are grilled. Below in the middle of the pot there is a hole, under which the wood fire burns in a rough welded-together firebox. At the bottom of the pot in the side is an outlet for the chicken fat. Supplied with original spice pots and two teapots made of glazed clay, for which the handle and the spouts are on the same side, so that tea can be poured even in the smallest space.

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“Grill” UGANDA, Kampala; “Chopping block” CHINA, Hong Kong; “Seating area” CHINA, Hong Kong; “Cheese and sausage stand” ARGENTINA, Buenos Aires; “Cotton candy stand” ARGENTINA, Buenos Aires; “Tea kitchen” SUDAN, Kharthum; “Fruit and vegetable stand” NAMIBIA, Rundu

16_“Tea kitchen“ SUDAN, Kharthum

All components of the tea and coffee kitchen are recycled: Welded tyre levers as chair frames, discarded ropes as roughly woven seats, tin cans as teapots and pots, a metal bar used as a coffee bean mortar, interwoven tin strips as a fire basket for the log fire for making coffee and tea. Two different brightly painted wooden cupboards with crooked locks and handles serve as a bar, including ashtrays and coffee filters made of wire mesh. Photo: Tim Giesen

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“Tea kitchen“ SUDAN, Kharthum; “Seating area” CHINA, Hong Kong; “Grill” UGANDA, Kampala; “Terracotta chicken grill“ VIETNAM, Ho Chi Minh City

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“Coffee wagon“ ARGENTINA, Buenos Aires; “Hot Dog stand“ USA, Miami; “Market stand“ CHINA, Hong Kong

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“Hot Dog stand“ USA, Miami; “Floating market“ VIETNAM, Ho Chi Minh City; “Coffee waggon“ ARGENTINA, Buenos Aires

20_“Close up Floating market“ VIETNAM, Ho Chi Minh City

All photos: Hartmut Nägele; Copyright: Dornbracht