An artistic event, commercial adventure and social program rolled into one, the restaurant Food opened its doors on 25th September 1971. This video documents various moments in the life of this associative restaurant. As always in this relationship between art and life which Gordon Matta-Clark maintains, the performance work but also his work on encounters with others is documented in a lively and spontaneous way.

The first sequence shows the shopping that they do at indoor markets and several discussions with the shopkeepers. A fisherman, swept up in a discussion, starts to sing in his native language.

Next, we see the kitchens of the restaurant, and the preparation of a meal.

Artist-chefs were invited to prepare meals.

We see the preparation and the dinner named “Bone”, which Gordon devised. An ox-tail soup was served for around one hundred people, then plates full of chicken drumsticks, stuffed beef and wild rice and mushrooms. After the meal, the bones were cleaned, pierced, attached to a rope and given back to the guests as a necklace, so that their dinner could be worn around their necks. This form of recycling once again represents the establishing of a ritual that appears to be very primitive, and hence very paradoxical in relation to the restaurant’s location in the heart of Manhattan, and also in relation to the rather distinguished clientele that we see in the film.

The film documents each phase in the life of the restaurant, each moment is reviewed – hence, in the last phase, they are doing the dishes, maintaining an upbeat atmosphere all the while.

Patricia Maincent

Translated by Anna Knight