Future Grandpa's Secret Recipe

Is History ok?

June 30 - September 10, 2021

"Is History OK?" is an experimental artistic research project inspired by the context of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The artist, Future Grandpa's Secret Recipe, transforms everyday situations and events into creations that blur the line between image and object, challenging conventional categories of artistic representation.

Drawing on references and practices from genetic technology, history, political culture, and economics, Future Grandpa's Secret Recipe interprets the complexities of contemporary reality. In the project "Is History OK?", the artist takes biological samples from the nasal cavity of a statue of Wilhelm I. These samples are analyzed in a genetics and molecular biology laboratory to trace the genetic lineage and biological manifestations associated with a historical figure whose political will continues to be publicly represented through over 1,000 statues across Europe.

Future Grandpa's Secret Recipe (b. 1986, Idar-Oberstein, Germany) studied art at various institutions in Mainz, Leipzig, Warsaw, Seoul, and Stuttgart, graduating in 2017 with a participatory project exploring takeaway culture. This project involved creating a network of individuals carrying keychains featuring images of food transport boxes. In his artistic practice, he transforms mundane observations and situations into tangible material objects. His work often begins with the human body, oscillating between the internal and external, and referencing the production of selfhood. By engaging directly with material qualities, he emphasizes the performative dimensions of everyday relationships.

Project realized with the support of: IFA (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen)

Design by: ARC-Gestaltung, Berlin

Media Partners: Revista ARTA