Dezeen movie: in this film we made in Cologne last month, creative director Mike Meiré (above) of Meiré und Meiré and Andreas Dornbracht of kitchen and bathroom brand Dornbracht explain Global Street Food, an exhibition of improvised street kitchens collected from around the world. 

The exhibition, held at Meiré’s studio during the IMM Cologne furniture fair, was commissioned by Dornbracht as part of its Dornbracht Edges series of cultural projects.

Here’s some text about the project from Dornbracht:

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Dornbracht: Global Street Food at the Passengen/IMM Cologne 2009

Dornbracht debut the new exhibition “Global Street Food” during imm Cologne 2009. The installation is Mike Meiré’s latest contribution to the Dornbracht Edges exhibition series, consisting of projects which explore the interaction of architecture, design and utopia.

“Global Street Food” is dedicated to the fascination with improvised kitchens in public places. Urban fast food stations navigate the contrast between pragmatic dilettantism and complexity in the smallest of spaces. Mike Meiré presents a variety of objects and street foods from different areas of the world in a classic white cube. This exhibition explores the sculptural quality of authentic objects and their cultural identity.

Decontextualisation allows people to look at the units from various points of view: what materials is this type of unit made from? Where do they come from and how do they communicate with each other?

Just as we began with “The Farm Project” to provide a contrast to aesthetic minimalism in the kitchen, we want to inspire a design with these street sculptures which also provides a narrative. What happens if you put technology outside, make it visible and create an object that represents a kind of life situation, an organism in the smallest of spaces?

The kitchen as a place of social dynamics and transformation is just one such organism. The miniaturisation, the combination of altogether different aspects opens up a new avenue and makes it possible to think about other processes. From this type of field research, I am hoping for a development that leads to different forms of expression, aesthetics that seek out stylistic incongruities.” (Mike Meiré)