CRI听力:Italy Arts and Food Exhibition Held in Milan

The 'Arts & Food' exhibition, a ritual which can be traced back to 1851, aims to explore the human relationship with all things edible.

This year, 150 years' worth of food habits has been put on the menu.

At the exhibition, the function of food is not to stave off hunger, but to stimulate people's curiosity through mixed media. To comprehensively display foods as materials of artwork, the exhibit involves all five senses.

Exhibition Architect Italo Rota:

"In this room we go from the smell of coffee to that of chocolate and bread. These are the materials of the artwork, so the exhibit involves not just sight, but all five senses. And this helps visitors memorize complex issues that the exhibit illustrates…anorexia, bulimia, famine, and also the great pleasure of a colorful cake, which catches the eye first."

Visitors can explore fifteen rooms in the exhibition, which is set up to be like a journey through time.

The exhibition's curator took three years to obtain all of the over 2,000 pieces showcased at the exhibit on loan.

The theme of this year's exhibit is in line with the expo, which is 'Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life'.

Exhibition Curator Germano Celant:

"The goal of the exhibit is to bring the public closer to the complexity of history from 1851, the year of the first world EXPO in London, to today's EXPO, 2015, where the theme of food is explored through all possible languages: photography, cinema, literature, paintings, sculptures, designs, so that the public may understand the full picture of the intellectual work that evolves around food."

In one corner of the exhibition, visitors are experiencing a journey back into the 19th century.
Exhibition Curator Germano Celant:

"Since 1950, food has become something artificial, stored in cans and industrially-produced. This is the era of pop art, where food becomes the subject of sculptures and paintings and to this day that subject has evolved into an icon of the future."

Precious British silverware that opens the way to paintings, old fashioned Coca-Cola dispensers and art installations that critique mass consumption all make an appearance at the exhibit.

Familiar objects like blenders, mixers, juicers, toasters and grinders can all be found as well.

The 'Arts & Food' exhibition is expected to run until November 1st 2015.

For CRI, I'm Huang Shan.