"Helping is not art, but art can help" - gallery becomes soup kitchen

Where otherwise expensive photographic art is sold with champagne and canapés, the focus is now on the existential: artist Dennis Josef Meseg (45) is serving soup for a month at the Stammhirn gallery in Cologne - and calling this unusual installation "Armenküche" (soup kitchen).

The artistic background: "It's about getting people to think. Familiar places are changed in their purpose and thus become more visible again," says Meseg.
No visitor has to prove that they are poor. From 10 February to 10 March, everyone will receive a hot meal from a local organic farm every day from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. (except Sundays). Up to 100 portions will be served. The Wesselingen-based artist and entrepreneur Meseg finances everything himself: Room hire, helpers and food. He knows all about strokes of fate: "I lived on the streets myself when I was young and know what it feels like to have to go to bed at night on an empty stomach." The artist records his observations in a diary every day. Meseg: "My art enables me to talk to people, reach them and draw their attention to issues that affect us all."

Short biography of the artist and initiator

Drug use, dropping out of school, being kicked out of his parents' home and living in a tent on the street - Dennis Josef Meseg (45) experienced all of this himself as a young man. Today, he is a celebrated and award-winning artist who has not forgotten his roots: that is why he initiated the first "soup kitchen" in Bonn in 2023.
The Wesselingen-based artist draws attention to social and political grievances with his provocative, contemporary art actions. Violence against women with an art campaign on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin or nude models on church pews denouncing the church abuse scandal - Dennis Josef Meseg (45) was honoured with the cultural plaque of the city of Wesseling for his work in 2023 and received the "CREO" creative award from the German Society for Creativity in 2021.