Eat Me.

January 17, 2007 8:26 AM

Guess who we're having for dinner? Danish shock artist Marco Evaristti lippoed some of his belly fat, fried meatballs in it and served it, partaking himself. He also canned some of the Polpette al grasso di Marco and sold at least two cans for $23,200 each. Cannibalism? Extreme autophagy? Trenchant comment on plastic surgery, taboos and consumerism? Or just really really gross?
posted by CunningLinguist (70 comments total)

Evaristti made headlines in 2000 for displaying goldfish in blenders, inviting viewers to blend the fish. The installation was destroyed after the first day.
In this picture, the artist poses as if crucified with a star of David tattoed on his chest, getting blown by a naked but veiled woman. "The photo unites three religions in one: christianity, judaism and islam," he says.
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:26 AM on January 17, 2007

hwarf

ew gosh why am I hungry now..?
posted by cowbellemoo at 8:30 AM on January 17, 2007

Some people will go to any legnths to avoid working a day job. Which is a good thing since I wouldn't want this dude manning the helm at the Burger King.
posted by jonmc at 8:30 AM on January 17, 2007 [2 favorites has favorites]

I'd eat it.
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:32 AM on January 17, 2007

see also,

Viennese Actionism

(most definitely NSFW)
posted by johnny novak at 8:33 AM on January 17, 2007

My money's on "...just really, really gross."
posted by Dizzy at 8:37 AM on January 17, 2007

This reminds me of the Bodies exhibit; I was looking at the display of man whom had been sectioned into quarter-inch slices, specifically at the thighs, and I couldn't help but think about how much I love Prosciutto.
posted by JeremiahBritt at 8:38 AM on January 17, 2007

Piero Manzoni lived and worked a few blocks from my apartment, you know
posted by matteo at 8:38 AM on January 17, 2007

Stories of people like this help me to reduce my occasional feelings of regret about having chosen an architecture degree over a BFA.

(It's not even a very original idea - seems very 'fight club' to me, just eating instead of bathing)
posted by bashos_frog at 8:40 AM on January 17, 2007

This guy is so full of himself.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 8:41 AM on January 17, 2007 [9 favorites has favorites]

Amateur!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 8:44 AM on January 17, 2007

I am shocked by the actions of this "shock artist".
posted by Nelson at 8:45 AM on January 17, 2007

He also canned some of the Polpette al grasso di Marco and sold at least two cans for $23,200 each. Cannibalism? Extreme autophagy? Trenchant comment on plastic surgery, taboos and consumerism? Or just really really gross?

Sounds more like good old-fashioned "profiting off the utter stupidity of rich people". Good for him.
posted by StrasbourgSecaucus at 8:46 AM on January 17, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

This barely rises to the level of morning zoo FM radio prank.
posted by Pastabagel at 8:46 AM on January 17, 2007

I'm skipping breakfast. May not eat lunch. May go vegan.
posted by tula at 8:47 AM on January 17, 2007

Piero Manzoni lived and worked a few blocks from my apartment, you know

He ever drop by to borrow your can opener?
posted by jonmc at 8:47 AM on January 17, 2007

He also canned some of the Polpette al grasso di Marco and sold at least two cans for $23,200 each. Cannibalism? Extreme autophagy? Trenchant comment on plastic surgery, taboos and consumerism? Or just really really gross?

Sounds more like good old-fashioned "profiting off the utter stupidity of rich people". Good for him.
posted by StrasbourgSecaucus at 11:46 AM EST on January 17

You all realize he didn't actually do this, right? The cans are probably regular meatballs with a new label.
posted by Pastabagel at 8:48 AM on January 17, 2007

Wasn't there a guy a few years ago, who along the same lines, canned his own crap and sold it as art for equally insane prices?

Blending goldfish as an art installation? What exactly is that making a statement about, other than the artist needing his medication?
posted by timsteil at 8:53 AM on January 17, 2007

If I pay 20 grand for a can of meatballs, they better be fried in human lipo suctioned fat, goddammit.
posted by jefbla at 8:54 AM on January 17, 2007

Pruned danish.
posted by hal9k at 8:54 AM on January 17, 2007

Blending goldfish as an art installation? What exactly is that making a statement about, other than the artist needing his medication?

The Milgram experiment, maybe.
posted by mkb at 8:56 AM on January 17, 2007

Tum de dum, I think I'll check MetaFilter while I eat lunch...

Oh.
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:56 AM on January 17, 2007

I knew a guy who would bite off a big ole fingernail and then light it on fire. He liked to watch himself burn. It smelled gross.

Yeah the Viennese actionists. What a bunch of goofs those guys are...

Anyhow this all reminds me of a story my H.S. European studies teacher recounted about the decadence of the Roman empire: Seems some Senator was making trouble for Caligula. So Caligula decides to make nice and invites the guy and and his wife over for a lavish dinner fit for Ceasar. And after the meal is over and dessert is being served Caligula coyly asks: "So, how are the kids?"

...
posted by Skygazer at 9:00 AM on January 17, 2007

A similar thing was done in Dirty Sanchez: The Movie. Or at least they pretend to do it, but the scene is not recommended for the squemish...
posted by rpn at 9:03 AM on January 17, 2007

Eww. Just... eww.

::Adds the name "Marco Evaristti" to a long list entitled "People to Definitely Avoid in Life..."::
posted by miss lynnster at 9:03 AM on January 17, 2007

I once thought I was getting smarter as I got older but then realized the world was just getting dumber. But not you guys, you're fabulous.
posted by Iron Rat at 9:03 AM on January 17, 2007

That's it! I'm going to will my body to art.
posted by digaman at 9:05 AM on January 17, 2007

Nasty.
posted by squirrel at 9:06 AM on January 17, 2007

Fried meatballs, huh? Then the best part is that if he eats them, he can do it again, and again, and again, since the fry fat will give him a net surplus of calories.
posted by boo_radley at 9:09 AM on January 17, 2007

Merely fried in human fat? Jeffrey Dahmer is not impressed.
posted by doctor_negative at 9:09 AM on January 17, 2007

And the artist himself? Well, he is a Latin ­American and a Jew. He is Danish and an immigrant. A multi-ethnic and multi-cultural ticking bomb on two legs. He is charming and ­irresistible and has a knack for making things happen around him, to an extent which is hardly ever seen in this country, where unassumingness is enthroned. His legendary Spanish-Danish is heard as ­honeyed music in many people’s ears. He is macho. He is also a big kid with a proclivity for sports cars and motorcycles. He loves ­techno music and often travels to Thailand and Vietnam, where he has studios. He is generous. He’s crazy about sex, loves to spend money and regards himself as being “a left-wing capitalist”. He cannot be reduced to the terms of a formula. He is intense and completely awake in the present moment.

I feel weak in the knees in the presence of such an alpha ubermensch. Even his honeyed accent is legendary. You guys are all just jealous pussies! This man is the Picasso of our era. And he loves techno! OMG!
posted by digaman at 9:16 AM on January 17, 2007

He is Danish

I thought he was meatballs? Maybe he's trying to be both breakfast and lunch?

What's for dinner?
posted by jonmc at 9:19 AM on January 17, 2007

...and often travels to Thailand and Vietnam, where he has studios. He is generous. He’s crazy about sex, loves to spend money...

Pretty easy to read between those lines.
posted by Meatbomb at 9:22 AM on January 17, 2007

Blending goldfish as an art installation? What exactly is that making a statement about, other than the artist needing his medication?

I rarely defend art of this type, but actually, I sort of like this one. The key element, which you left out, is inviting the viewer to blend the fish. Would you? (probably not). What if someone around you did?

I'm not claiming it's genius, and I wouldn't give the guy a dime, but I see more to this than your usually "here's a bucket of my vomit" school of art.

Now, the eating his own fat ... not so much.
posted by Bookhouse at 9:29 AM on January 17, 2007

Is this the line for "really, really gross?"
posted by Kwine at 9:32 AM on January 17, 2007

That Bio. It reeks. Of A.R.T. S.C.H.O.O.L post Warholian please kill-me-now-ness. But why not I guess...I might steal it wholesale and stick it in my resume. Or I might just print it up and stick it up my butt. Voila. C'est un piece d'art.
posted by Skygazer at 9:34 AM on January 17, 2007

I find the work of photojournalists and philosophers more thought provoking and intellectually stimulating that this stuff, which seems closer to gimmickry to me.

I hope gimmickry is a word.
posted by nihraguk at 9:35 AM on January 17, 2007

The key element, which you left out, is inviting the viewer to blend the fish.

Yeah, whatever. Dan Akroyd beat him to it decades ago.
posted by jonmc at 9:35 AM on January 17, 2007

I'm not sure why most of the people here think this is such an outrageously stupid idea. Obviously, he's making an allusion to Christianity. Obviously, it's a sort of thought-art-experiment actually executed. Probably, the twenty grand or so he earned was probably some rich friend-of-a-friend taken by the charm of autophagy. If it grosses you out, fine, but don't call it dumb, for bejeezus's sake.
posted by suedehead at 9:40 AM on January 17, 2007

If I shit in a bag and called it art, will people pay me like they apparently pay this idiot?

I'd try, but I'd feel bad about making people smell it.

Plus I could never whine about "making such a powerful statement about post-modern social depravity" while I held a bag of my own crap and keep a straight face. But some people have no shame.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:41 AM on January 17, 2007

johnny novak said: Viennese Actionism

From their Gunter Brus bio:

His actions generally used black and white body-painting and the materials he liked to use were razor blades, nails, scissors and saws. He developed a technique of black lines to be symbolic for separation: "A hint of the vulnerability of the body and an analytical symbol" ("Eine Andeutung der Verletzung des Körpers und analytisches Symbol").

A series of actions called "Mutilation" ("Selbstverstümmelung") showed the artist cutting his own body up and doing other types of harm to it.

Pity this school doesn't start with the head...
posted by cenoxo at 9:44 AM on January 17, 2007

Kinda defeats the purpose, doesn't it?
posted by Ironmouth at 9:49 AM on January 17, 2007

Would the fat taste any good? The old cannibals are supposed to have called human flesh 'long pig' - if the fat resembled lard, I imagine it could be pretty good, certainly worth a gourmet's while to try, in principle.

The chief problem from a culinary, and perhaps an artistic point of view, is that instead of carving the fat from his own body with a knife, he went for the wussy rich bourgeois method of liposuction. Even if his fat was free of unpleasant chemical contamination to begin with (unlikely), what's liposuction going to do to it? Who would use lard extracted from a pig by liposuction, for heaven's sake?
posted by Phanx at 10:03 AM on January 17, 2007

I might steal it wholesale

I think I'm getting the idea.


And the journalist himself? Well, he is mostly Russian Jewish with a little Irish thrown in. He is often confused for Latino, Greek, Arab, and the other edgy, ultramasculine races. He is stunningly empathetic and dizzyingly articulate, and has a knack for zeroing in on the buffet at high-end launch parties. His legendary New Jersey-California accent -- think Tony Soprano after grueling months of Dead tour -- makes anorectic supermodels damp and back-end codemonkeys clench their blushing buttocks in mammal fear. His schlong rivals the impressive salamis hanging on the walls at Katz's Deli, and he's often hailed as the next Lew Alcindor of the wireless-mouse set. He loves ­jazz, which is allegedly coming back among hipsters after a couple of regrettable decades of hair-metal and power ballads, and often travels to Haight Street, where he orders super burritos with extra cilantro. He is, most of all, modest and self-effacing. He cannot be reduced to a mere tagline, buzz phrase, or .sig file. He is no man's ineffectual sequel, generic knockoff, or mere body double. He swims like a Zen shark through the ocean of Nowness, flashing his merciless choppers to any hapless fool who would assert that his Nioxin-enriched shampoo is useless against encroaching male-pattern baldness.
posted by digaman at 10:06 AM on January 17, 2007 [3 favorites has favorites]

He's no Ned Brocklehurst.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 10:11 AM on January 17, 2007

Sounds like something Tom Green would do.
posted by The Deej at 10:14 AM on January 17, 2007

If smearing shit all over things makes awesome art I've got a whole stable full of seriously talented dudes you might want to meet downstairs in the day center for homeless men I work at.
posted by The Straightener at 10:17 AM on January 17, 2007

jeez, digaman, is that description for real? Makes we wanna put the guy in a party dress, drive him to some redneck sallon at happy hour and leave him there unarmed.
posted by jonmc at 10:21 AM on January 17, 2007

jeez, digaman, is that description for real?

I have some canned Vienna sausages to sell you. Signed!
posted by digaman at 10:22 AM on January 17, 2007

By who? Vienna? The whole city?
posted by jonmc at 10:26 AM on January 17, 2007

German cannibal, Armin Meiwes.
posted by nickyskye at 10:32 AM on January 17, 2007

ps trailer for a movie based on the story of Meiwes on YouTube.
posted by nickyskye at 10:38 AM on January 17, 2007

This misses the true genius of Manzoni: Manzoni offered to let collectors participate in the work for a fee, and sent them a turd collection kit.

In effect, Manzoni sold people their own excrement. Now that's art.
posted by quercus at 11:01 AM on January 17, 2007

he orders super burritos with extra cilantro

I'm doing that next time I get a burrito. Thanks for the tip!

Of course it's being made in New York City will make it subpar to the west coast variety. You bastards.
posted by Skygazer at 11:43 AM on January 17, 2007

Obviously, he's making an allusion to Christianity.

What does cooking meatball in his own fat have to do with that exactly?
posted by Holy foxy moxie batman! at 12:11 PM on January 17, 2007

China Adams did this sort of art earlier and better.
posted by Eater at 12:15 PM on January 17, 2007

Or just really really gross?

That one.
posted by Robot Johnny at 12:55 PM on January 17, 2007

I'm going #2 and #4 for the win!

I am perpetually amazed not so much as to the utter inanity of what some people call art, but at the fact that people still want to SEE it. For cryin' out loud folks, if you ignore them they'll go away!
posted by elendil71 at 1:13 PM on January 17, 2007

Dearest Marco,

Yes angel, everyone thinks you're tres outrageous. You have shocked the bourgeoisie with your pop culture references to 40 year old television comedy and 10 year old movies. Next, perhaps you could climb a clock tower with a crossbow that fires twinkies? But only if the twinkies are filled with ejaculate. Otherwise, it would just be silly.
posted by dejah420 at 1:17 PM on January 17, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Wasn't there a guy a few years ago, who along the same lines, canned his own crap and sold it as art for equally insane prices?

Yes, the previously-mentioned Piero Manzoni. And he did it 46 years ago.
posted by zsazsa at 1:40 PM on January 17, 2007

Mamma mia, dat's one spicy meat-a-ball!
posted by jason's_planet at 1:47 PM on January 17, 2007

"Piero Manzoni lived and worked..."

Manzoni! Dude still owes me money!
posted by vronsky at 2:57 PM on January 17, 2007

What does cooking meatball in his own fat have to do with that exactly?

Um, Transubstantiation, maybe? Psheesh.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 3:07 PM on January 17, 2007

Yeah, you call this art? This guy is a total idiot! I could've done that myself, and I didn't even go to a fancy art school! Etc., ad nauseum.
posted by ludwig_van at 3:34 PM on January 17, 2007

A series of actions called "Mutilation" ("Selbstverstümmelung") showed the artist cutting his own body up and doing other types of harm to it.

This is not actually all that shocking or unusual in some circles. There are plenty of people who would get a sexual charge from it.
posted by localroger at 3:57 PM on January 17, 2007

Um, Transubstantiation, maybe? Psheesh.

No, then he would be consuming human meat, not human fat.
posted by mkb at 12:10 PM on January 18, 2007

ok then, transfatsubstantiation.
posted by jonmc at 1:17 PM on January 18, 2007 [2 favorites has favorites]

Sorry Jon, that has been outlawed by Bloomberg.
posted by vronsky at 11:47 AM on January 19, 2007

The goldfish piece is very standard '60s-'70s personal risk + audience participating performance, applied to unwilling fishies. See: Yoko Ono's "Cut Piece" or Marina Abramovic's astonishing "Rhythm O". It seems a shame the goldfish comando squad liberated the fish and smashed the blenders, when the most elegant solution was to cut the cords.

Take it from someone who has ruminated longer than anyone should on the meaning and impact of visceral performance art: the auto-fat meatball piece doesn't resonate. Too much work for a minimal, derivative payback. Now if he has a kidney removed in a black market organ factory, fries it up and shares it with a family member on dialysis, we'll talk.
posted by Scram at 6:55 PM on January 19, 2007

He cannot be reduced to the terms of a formula. He is intense and completely awake in the present moment.

He would never wipe his butt with anything other than Renova Black. He is so chic and trendy, even his feces come out gold-plated. Hence the Renova Black.

That said - this guy is so full of himself. I eagerly await his fade into obscurity, causing him to plan a final tragic stunt to SHOCK THE WORLD. Or appear on obscure, late-night game shows in Taiwan.
posted by Xere at 10:55 PM on January 20, 2007