Patrik Kovačovský — Grande Bouffe

Intermedia artist Patrik Kovačovský, in his own words, used his work Grande Bouffe to reflect on the then current situation with illegal immigration and smugglers transporting migrants.¹ The immigrant or refugee crisis has become a society-wide topic for Europeans, including us in Slovakia, since 2014. In 2015, when it was at its peak, the author began work on his piece Grande Bouffe. It features an improvised table set for six people – a board on two wooden supports, on it five soup plates of similar sizes with a dinner plate and six spoons beside them. A the centre of the table lies a five-pointed star – the symbol on the flag of the European Union – illuminated by a desk lamp. The metal plates and spoons are filled with resin and models of military boats and ships of different scales float, submerge or are already submerged in them.

At first glance, the scene may look like something out of a yet-to-be-released film. A moment BEFORE or even AFTER – a scene of a gathering where the powerful convene to deliberate the future, debate the next steps, and decide what constitutes fairness. “But what is our future? Is a new Europe – a Newrope – on the horizon?”²

Despite the clear circumstances of the work’s creation and its intention, the title of the spatial installation invites us to further possibilities of interpretation. Grande Bouffe literally translates as a large meal. The 1973 film by Marco Ferreri bears a similar title; it is known here as The Big Feast. A table with filled plates at which matters of life and death are decided is it a hidden message of the works that share the same title? Serving as a mirror to our consumer society then and now, provocation, criticism, irony – all this can be found in the works bearing the title Grande Bouffe…

Grande Bouffe was first exhibited at the Nitra Gallery in 2016 at the Newropa exhibition.The curator, Omar Mirza, approached almost thirty artists and art groups from different European countries and trying to offer a different perspective – more varied in content and form – on contemporary issues presented by politicians and the media. Older works were exhibited, or works adapted for the exhibition at the time, but most of the attention was given to new works created especially for the occasion.³