Kunst-Imbiss (snack stand)

Outpatient art supply

The Kunst-Imbiss takes its form from an everyday phenomenon: the existing form of the snack stand is transformed and serves as „camouflage for the art“.
As a luminous sculpture, the Kunst-Imbiss attracts people from afar. It is only when you get up close that the game of confusion becomes apparent: there is neither sausage nor chips, instead works by over 90 artists can be enjoyed in the form of spiritual nourishment.

The artists are selected on the basis of their oeuvre as a whole. The artists themselves choose which works they want to show there. Any sales go directly to the authors.

The choice of location is of particular importance. The locations range from brownfield sites in the port to shopping areas in the city center. „Trendy“ districts alternate with „precarious“ and middle-class locations. High-rise housing estates serve as locations, as do the KuDamm in Berlin or the Binnen-Alster and the Rathausmarkt in Hamburg. In this way, very different people come into contact with it.

In the meantime, the idea of the „mobile art space“ has found many imitators. However, the exhibition format, the sculptural intervention in public space, often lacks specific interaction with the public.

„We are always co-producers!!“

(Quote from „Gespräche am Imbiss“, Jaakov Blumas)

In summer 2005, the Kunst-Imbiss was launched for a planned three months in Hafencity, which was still largely undeveloped at the time. In the meantime, over 80 locations have been supplied with art on an outpatient basis. The Kunst-Imbiss will be in its „20th season“ in summer 2024.

Connections can be drawn to Albrecht Dürer, whose wife Agnes and his mother Barbara sell the printed products from his workshop at the weekly market between fruit and vegetable vendors. Marcel Duchamp experimented with mobile presentations of his art in the 20th century.

„Duchamp on wheels“

(Audience commentary at theKunst-Imbiss, Berlin, 2006)

Banksy in 21st century New York leaves his works to a street vendor and has the scene filmed. (Art Sale, Banksy NY)

„The best things in life are free.“

(Quote from Gespräche am Imbiss, Rupprecht Matthies)