Friday 14 October 2011

THE EVENING BEFORE THE MORNING AFTER, MARIO GARCIA TORRE'S COCKTAIL NIGHT AT BISTROTHEQUE


Vladimir offering some Sprouzos!


MGT's Sabor a Mi (Taste of Me)


The CWE, Aleksandra Mir's Rejection, and Sarah McCrory's Cheeky Vimto


serving some Jonathan Monk's Bloody Gin and Tonic Mary


dj of the night Craig Garett together with chief cocktailier Mr Waddington


MGT and PLB waiting for the customers


Mario Garcia Torres


Mme Horan, creator of the Nailgroni


Mr. Giles Round creator of the Crystal Meth


Kit Hammonds about to have his Publish and be Slammed shot


Manuela Ribadeneira with her Cruz del Sur drink


Ali MacGilp and Carmen Julia having a Klein Blue


Mrs Gwendoline Christie and Mr David Waddington


Mme Esther Planas, celebrating her birthday with Aztec zombie friends


Pijnappel, Angelidakis, Mirko de Lisi


Jose Garcia Torres, Patrick Charpenel


Mr. Gabriel Lester and friends


Pablo Accinelli having a Jonathan Monk's Bloody Gin and Tonic Mary


The Centre for the Aesthetic Revolution and Bistrotheque presents:
THE EVENING BEFORE THE MORNING AFTER
a small show, or gathering, or event-exhibition, or bar night, or cocktail menu
by Mario Garcia Torres

*****

COCKTAIL MENU

CWE
by Cerith Wyn Evans
Equal parts of Evian and Bdoit, slice of cucumber

The Rejection
by Aleksandra Mir
Ice cold sparkling water, wedge of lime, no ice cubes

Counter-Insurgency
by Claire Bishop
A conservative glass of chilled Rosé

Sprouzo
by Pauline Daly and Rebecca Warren
Sprite, Ouzo

Cheeky Vimto
by Sarah McCrory
1 bottle WKD Blue, shot of Port, ice

Gloria
for Rosalind Nashashibi
Tequila, Prosecco and Triple sec

The Bloody Gin and Tonic Mary
by Jonathan Monk
Gin, Vodka, tonic water, tomato juice, equal amounts of each with lemon juice, lime juice and ice

Crystal Meth
by Giles Round
Champagne, Vodka, pomegranate juice and cassis

Nailgroni
by Phillipa Horan
A traditional Negroni with an ice cube in it which has a small piece of nail in it
You have to drink the Nailgroni quickly before the ice melts so you don't swallow a piece of my nail

Publish and be Slammed
by Kit Hammonds
salt rimmed Tequila shot with a lime Vodka jelly at the bottom of the glass
In the jelly would be floating some letters cut from Frieze magazine

La Cruz del Sur
by Manuela Ribadeneira
Cachaca, five ice cubes (one for each star)
Look south literally or metaphorically while drinking

Dry Laurette
by Matthieu Laurette
Gin, dry vermouth, olive (no lemon twist nor vodka!)

Sabor a Mi
by MGT
Prosecco, Cynar, Gin, St. Germain, sugar water, orange peel

The Klein International Blue
by Yves Klein
Gin Bombay Sapphire, Curaçao Amerlalis, Cointreau, lemon juice

*****

THE EVENING BEFORE THE MORNING AFTER
a small show, or gathering, or event-exhibition, or bar night, or cocktail menu
by Mario Garcia Torres

Alcohol (as well as drugs) consumption have been historically, and most probable mistakenly, connected to the creative act. Yet there has been a number of visual artists that have resorted to the old idea of drinking and getting drunk to create their work, both as a medium and as its “content”. The English duo Gilbert & George in Balls: The Evening Before the Morning After - Drinking Sculpture (1972) took blurred pictures of themselves while getting drunk, it is from this work that this night and cocktail menu take its title from. In another of their iconic works Gordon’s Gin Makes Us Drunk (1972), the couple is seen on a video piece indulging in the mentioned spirit. Similarly, the entire Andy Warhol film Drink (1965) is a long take of the filmmaker Emile de Antonio downing a bottle of whiskey. The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends -I wouldn't limit it to only such beverage- is the Highest Form of Art (1970), declared Tom Morioni as he inaugurated what now is called a social situation type of artwork.

By chance, and several years before, the experience of art through a cocktail was extended after the fact, some would say into the morning after. Those who attended the opening of the French artist Yves Klein at the Galerie Iris Clert in Paris on April 29, 1959 could acknowledge it. For this exhibition the space had been painted with white enamel and stripped of all objects and furniture except for a white, empty cabinet. The almost bare gallery could not be seen from outside as the windows had been painted blue and the door was covered with a heavy curtain of the same colour, with two Republican Guards keeping watch over it. Nevertheless the artist had arranged for a specific cocktail made with Gin, Cointreau and Curacao to be served. To the French artist delight -who had been painting deep blue monochrome paintings made out of a self invented recipe for such pigment- all who enjoyed the drink eventually found their pee stained blue.

Thinking about this and proposing, again, to use the idea of the cocktail as a medium, or more so to use the mixology that such a drink require to provoke a specific aesthetic experience, or... maybe just as a decoy to have a good conversation, I have invited a number of artists friends to present their own cocktail, either one that they like, have customised or that have put together themselves. As an honorary place, the menu will close with the historic blue cocktail.

THE EVENING BEFORE THE MORNING AFTER takes place once a month at Celeste House in Mexico City, for this occasion Bistrotheque and the Centre for the Aesthetic Revolution have invited MGT and artists and curators in London to participate in a London version of this evening.

No comments:

Post a Comment