An artist's view on food waste

...seen in mid-November 2013 at the still life image by photographer Klaus Pichler who arranged rotten 'Strawberries' deliciously on a silver plate. The Austrian photographer's work is currently exhibited at the group show 'Eating in Art' at Frohner Forum/Kunsthalle Krems (runs until 23 March 2014).

'Eating' stands in the exhibition at Kunsthalle Krems for evanescence (living and death of the human body), socializing (festivities and religious rites) and for cultural identity (and therefore as source for creative productions). The three main themes are reflected by works of artists like Joseph Beuys, Hermann Nitsch or Daniel Spoerri. And then there is a fourth theme - which is not explicitly announced on kunsthalle.at but has its space at 'Eating in Art': food industry-critical works.

The rotten 'Strawberries' on a silver plate are from Vienna-based Klaus Pichler's 'One Third' photo series which makes aware of today's industrialization of food production, the co2 footprint of for example strawberries and the waste of food (the artist references a study by UN which says that one third of the food production goes to waste). The images of the 'One Third' series are published with descriptions concerning the origin of the food - such as these strawberries which were produced in Verona/Italy, the transport distance (in this case 741 km - the distance from Verona to Vienna), and other production notes such as cultivation method, harvest time, mode of transport, and effects on the environment such as carbon footprint of the production and transport (per kg strawberries: 0,35 kg), water requirement (production and transport per kg: 348 l) and the final price for the consumer which is not the summary of all variables (keyword co2 footprint) but the supermarket's price.

The 'One Third' series travels currently around the world; the images were and are on view at several destinations. Upcoming exhibitions at the UN FAO Asia Headquarter in Hong Kong and at ADEME gallery in Limoges (France) are announced on Klaus Pichler's website on kpic.at.


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