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Ever heard of Kreemart? On September 21st , Kreemart just visited Apertura 2013, the Spanish capital’s international art fair, with a performance with edible books orchestrated by the visual artist Glenda Leon and the Spanish super-chef Paco Roncero. We are all very looking forward to find out where art will take desserts next!
Have you ever imagined that an art advisor and curator could break through the luxury cake business? Raphael Castoriano hates the word catering, still his New York based Kreemart is the first dessert venture that brings high-end contemporary artists closer to some of the world’s most acknowledged pastry chefs. As Castoriano loves repeating, the idea for this curious experiment that combines the expertise of famous pastry makers like Dominique Ansel or Milan’s Sant Ambreus, with the imagination of controversial artists like Maurizio Cattelan or Marina Abramovich, came out of boredom.
The static art dinners and soirées that he has assisted for years never had a good balance with the intensity of the works of his favorite artists. In 2010, he decided to team up with Ginevra Caltagirone and Claudia Cisneros and found the first platform of the international art scene that offers high-end patisserie as a medium for the artists. Questioned why he chose sweets, Castoriano answered that after all dessert is like art - a luxury – while common food is not. In the last 4 years Kreemart has presented an array of happenings, inviting the audience to spontaneously interact with the artists and their artworks in a direct way. Institutions like the MOMA, Miami Art Basel, The Armory Show, artists like Olaf Breuning, Leandro Elrich, Terence Koh and chefs Daniel Boulud, Brooks Headley, Elin Katz are just a few among the names that have contributed to build the fame of Kreemart’s happenings.
Taset has two meanings:
the flavor of things and the aesthetic preferences of the art lover.Kreemart
The artist gives the concept and Castoriano with his team help them produce it. The occasion might be a museum opening, an anniversary or the dessert itself. Marina Abramovic recently commissioned an edible Blondie to be served by Debbie Harry herself, while last December Maurizio Cattelan asked to celebrate the anniversary of his Toilet Paper magazine with a bunch bubble gum cigarettes, uplifting sugar to a more conceptual level. Teased about the bizarreness of some of his events, like for example MOCA’s annual Gala where the artist Marina Abramovic presented a life sized edible version of herself and one of the punk rock icon Debbie Harry, he replied vividly that there’s nothing creepy about a human-like cake. “ It was just pure art and the cakes were good”. The cakes in question took more than 10 days to create with a staff of many sculptors, make up crew from Hollywood’s special effects departments, the supervision of the pastry chefs from Rosebud Cakes and the details specified by the artist. In the arts –after all- provocation and exaggeration are added values.
