Antoni Miralda: The Maggic Banquet

Acclaimed artist Antoni Miralda will celebrate Miami’s diverse cultural heritage with The Maggic Banquet, a participatory food-performance that traces the culinary history of Maggi, the ubiquitous and universal seasoning brand.

As part of the Living Together Performance Series, The Maggic Banquet, a participatory food-performance by the internationally acclaimed Miami and Barcelona-based artist Antoni Miralda, celebrates Miami’s diverse cultural heritage by tracing the culinary history of Maggi, the ubiquitous and universal seasoning brand.

Presenting dishes from the kitchens of Miami’s various ethnic groups –all made with Maggi– in an altar-like buffet, Miralda explores the commodification and globalization of food and tradition. Accompanied by music, a special beverage, and a zine published with recipes in English, Spanish, and Creole, The Maggic Banquet turns the terrace of EXILE Books into a food-for-thought artwork.

About Antoni Miralda

Born in Terrassa in the province of Barcelona, Spain, Antoni Miralda has been using food as his art medium since the late 1960s. He often creates public and ritual events centered in popular culture and traditions, especially culinary ones. The Honeymoon Project (1986–92), was an international series of ceremonial and participatory actions at multiple sites that imagined the wedding of New York’s Statue of Liberty with the Columbus Monument in Barcelona, two diametrically opposite icons of freedom and conquest.

Since 1971 Miralda has lived and worked in the U.S., and since 1993 has spent much of his time in New York and Miami, where he started FoodCultura, a project that includes archives and collections, and that produces exhibitions and events around the world which explore the subjects of food diversity and its relation to culture. He was the subject of major retrospectives at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid in 2010 and the MACBA in Barcelona in 2016.