MOCA Shanghai - Museum of Contemporary Art

On February 9, 2010, the solo exhibition of Dessert by Zhou Tiehai will be held in Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art (Shanghai MoCA). Zhou Tiehai has begun to pay attention to the long-standing culinary culture of France since 2005, especially the culture of dessert - he found that he happened to have some wisdom and practice much-needed by Shanghai MoCA. So he began painting the Dessert series the following year. As a French characteristic, some desserts are named after various social occupations and roles, which is a source of inspiration for the Dessert series. The 12 desserts in the series are: diplomat, juge, ministre, prof, commissaire, sycophante, caroleuse, blancheresse, financier, bouffon, chiffonnier and sabotajnik. When gourmets enjoy the desserts, those names seemingly unintentional named but carrying with deep-rooted historical figures and events would appear before their eyes. In this way, dessert itself has become a hidden password. As Dessert is a hybrid, and the texts, images and plot displayed in the works all point to the same idea, i.e., the key to appreciate dessert is to interpret its literary merit with strict logic behind using various senses. Taste is only the first step.Therefore, the artist will invite Richard Toix, the chef from France's Michelin Restaurant to attend the opening ceremony in Shanghai, giving the audience a chance to taste his new understanding of six traditional French desserts named after occupations.