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Cleaners accidentally throw away Swiss artist’s ‘Unhappy Meal’ sculpture

When an artist plays with the reality, it can have unintended consequences.

Published: 4 April 2018 14:01 CEST

Cleaners accidentally throw away Swiss artist’s 'Unhappy Meal' sculpture

Carol May's 'Unhappy Meal'. Photo supplied.

That’s what happened to Switzerland’s Carol May recently when her “Unhappy Meal” sculpture was thrown away by cleaners during the hotel-based Harbour Art Fair in Hong Kong.

The work was being displayed in a hotel room converted into an exhibition space along with other pieces by the Swiss art collective a-space.

Like many of May’s pieces, the “Unhappy Meal” sculpture aims to shed a critical light on consumer culture. It resembles the traditional bright red and yellow boxes available at McDonald's restaurants around the world.

But there is a twist: the familiar smiley face has been turned upside down.

“A lot of my pieces involve very small alterations to familiar items: changes that aren’t maybe obvious at first glance,” May told The Local.

Unfortunately, in this case, cleaners at the Hong Kong hotel were also unable to spot the difference and threw away the artwork valued at around 350 francs.

Cleaners quickly rescued the piece from the trash, but it was battered beyond repair.

“Initially I didn’t find it funny at all,” May said. “But later I realised it meant my imitation had been a success.”

Based in Zurich, May has long played with ideas of the divide between reality and appearance. In 2013, she carried out a piece of performance art which saw her pretending to be beauty contestant winner, standing on the street with a sash reading “Miss May.”

Photo: Carol May.

“I am not pretty enough or tall enough to be a ‘Miss’ but it was amazing to see how differently people reacted to me when I gave myself another identity,” she explained to The Local.

Many of May’s works also examine the seductive nature of advertising, which has particular relevance in a place like Zurich which can seem awash with money. “I myself am seduced by advertising all the time. It happens to all of us: we think about what we can have or do. But not everything that glitters is gold.”

African-born director's new vision for Berlin cultural magnet

The “Haus der Kulturen der Welt” (House of World Cultures), or HKW, was built by the Americans in 1956 during the Cold War for propaganda purposes, at a time when Germany was still divided.

New director Ndikung said it had been located “strategically” so that people on the other side of the Berlin Wall, in the then-communist East, could see it.

This was “representing freedom” but “from the Western perspective”, the 46-year-old told AFP.

Now Ndikung, born in Cameroon before coming to study in Germany 26 years ago, wants to transform it into a place filled with “different cultures of the world”.

The centre, by the river Spree, is known locally as the “pregnant oyster” due to its sweeping, curved roof. It does not have its own collections but is home to exhibition rooms and a 1,000-seat auditorium.

It reopened in June after renovations, and Ndikung’s first project “Quilombismo” fits in with his aims of expanding the centre’s offerings.

The exhibition takes its name from the Brazilian term “Quilombo”, referring to the communities formed in the 17th century by African slaves, who fled to remote parts of the South American country.

Throughout the summer, there will also be performances, concerts, films, discussions and an exhibition of contemporary art from post-colonial societies across Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania.

‘Rethink the space’

“We have been trying to… rethink the space. We invited artists to paint walls… even the floor,” Ndikung said.

And part of the “Quilombismo” exhibition can be found glued to the floor -African braids laced together, a symbol of liberation for black people, which was created by Zimbabwean artist Nontsikelelo Mutiti.

According to Ndikung, African slaves on plantations sometimes plaited their hair in certain ways as a kind of coded message to those seeking to escape, showing them which direction to head.

READ ALSO: Germany hands back looted artefacts to Nigeria

His quest for aestheticism is reflected in his appearance: with a colourful suit and headgear, as well as huge rings on his fingers, he rarely goes unnoticed.

During his interview with AFP, Ndikung was wearing a green scarf and cap, a blue-ish jacket and big, sky-blue shoes.

With a doctorate in medical biology, he used to work as an engineer before devoting himself to art.

In 2010, he founded the Savvy Gallery in Berlin, bringing together art from the West and elsewhere, and in 2017 was one of the curators of Documenta, a prestigious contemporary art event in the German city of Kassel.

Convinced of the belief that history “has been written by a particular type of people, mostly white and men,” Ndikung has had all the rooms in the HKW renamed after women.

These are figures who have “done something important in the advancement of the world” but were “erased” from history, he added. Among them is Frenchwoman Paulette Nardal, born in Martinique in 1896.

She helped inspire the creation of the “negritude” movement, which aimed to develop black literary consciousness, and was the first black woman to study at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Reassessing history

Ndikung’s appointment at the HKW comes as awareness grows in Germany about its colonial past, which has long been overshadowed by the atrocities committed during the era of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis.

Berlin has in recent years started returning looted objects to African countries which it occupied in the early 20th century — Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Namibia and Cameroon.

“It’s long overdue,” said Ndikung.

He was born in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, into an anglophone family.

The country is majority francophone but also home to an anglophone minority and has faced deadly unrest in English-speaking areas, where armed insurgents are fighting to establish an independent homeland.

One of his dreams is to open a museum in Cameroon “bringing together historical and contemporary objects” from different countries, he said.

He would love to locate it in Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon’s restive Northwest region.

“But there is a war in Bamenda, so I can’t,” he says.

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