Click here to read the Spanish version.
From paintings, illustrations or sculptures, to fashion products or edible installations. All these works are diluted in the culinary universe of MORFO with which to feed oneself through art. Asesina Suárez and Lisandro Illa are the Argentines who co-direct this disruptive gallery that was born with the aim of offering an innovative experience with which to change the context based on a kind of iconoclastic movement. ‘This is the final part of the genesis process of the idea, since both of us have been working all our recent lives in curating, creativity and creative production’, express the directors.
MORFO (@morfo.galeria) was installed at the end of September in Madrid to open its doors to the entire artistic community with a group exhibition that brings together pieces by international artists such as Josefina Sierra Guzmán, Clara Cebrián, Nicolás Romero Escalada, Fernanda Kusel, Paloma Mariné, Santiago Paredes, Agustina Ros, Alberto Menéndez Cué, Dalila Virgolini, Laura Campo de Luna and Lisandro Illa. All of them star in the gallery’s ‘ISSUE I’ collection that connects culinary art through different formats.
The commissioner duo
The curators and directors of the gallery have extensive experience in the world of art and gastronomy. Lisandro Illa is a multifaceted culinary artist, specializing in vegan haute cuisine and the generation of mixed-media experiences. Throughout his career, he has worked in some of the best kitchens in the world, such as Noma, and has led the gastronomy of European festivals where he has cooked for artists of the caliber of Rosalía, Kendrick Lamar or Guns N’ Roses, among many others.
One of his professional milestones in the culinary field was the development of a watermelon-based substitute for cured ham. In addition, throughout his 10 years of experience, Illa has been an entrepreneur, art curator and creative producer.
On the other hand, Asesina Suárez is a textile artist, curator, creative producer and art director, playing leadership roles in production and creativity in different fields: art, advertising, television, festivals and cultural events in Argentina, Chile, Spain, Japan and Germany. Her connection with gastronomy has always come from visual aesthetics.
This crossover between culinary and visual art, which represents the identity of the gallery, is also illustrated through experiences, installations and activations in dialogue with the work of an artist with whom they collaborate. Haute cuisine is presented here in a different way: a subversive concept that they already materialized with their METABANQUETE: an ultra-contemporary still life painted by artist Nicolás Romero Escalada, which was replicated in real life so that attendees could taste all the elements and the food represented in the mural.
Edible fashion
MORFO’s talent transcended the gallery to take the catwalk stage during 080 Barcelona through a collaboration with the national brand Outsiders Division. This consisted of the creation of a series of accessories such as bags or hats made from bread, which Lisandro himself would bake for Outsiders’ tribe of ‘lost children’. ‘We love to play with elements taken from their common areas. We made a total look based on bread’.
But this creative union is only the beginning of their incursion into fashion. We have many ideas that have been triggered after this project, new means with which to make new garments and the truth is that we have in mind to carry out more projects of the style with fashion brands. There is even the idea of creating MORFOSTUDIO in parallel, a project with which to face this type of proposals that “go out” of the gallery format. All these ideas will be diluted with a series of activations and projects with which the gallery intends to expand globally, taking its concept to art fairs in major international markets such as London, Miami and Hong Kong.
