cook mal at FFT Düsseldorf: Culinary stage art meets Japanese performance
Date and Time
Location
Price
About this Event
Mood
Venue Type
When culinary art becomes stage art: cook mal at FFT Düsseldorf
On November 21, 2026, the foyer of FFT Düsseldorf will transform into a sensual meeting point between Japanese finger food, contemporary art, and a lively theatrical atmosphere. The artist and cook collective cook mal accompanies the Nippon Performance Nights with specially developed delicacies and invites the audience to an experience beyond traditional performance forms.
A culinary dramaturgy in the foyer
Marie Ogoshi and Soya Arakawa create meals that react directly to exhibitions, performances, and theater productions. Their kitchen does not follow a rigid recipe dramaturgy, but arises from dialogue with the respective occasion. Ingredients, forms, and presentation combine into an edible choreography that opens the theater evening already in the foyer.
Ceramics, flavor, and space
What is special is the interplay between food and vessel. cook mal designs ceramic tableware that matches the invited productions and also develops the dishes served on them specifically for the context. Thus, the stage design is expanded: plates and bowls become sculptural carriers, aromas become dramaturgical impulses, and the shared enjoyment becomes a social movement.
Between art academy and performance
Both members connect visual and performing arts. Marie Ogoshi studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf with Professor Didier Vermeiren. Soya Arakawa studied there with Professor Rita McBride and works at the interface of sculpture, performance, and spatial composition. In 2023, they founded cook mal as an artist cook collective.
Part of the Nippon Performance Nights
The Nippon Performance Nights create a special German-Japanese context at FFT Düsseldorf, bringing together current works by Japanese artists as well as Japanese artists living in Germany and Europe. cook mal serves as the culinary accompaniment, opening the festival space for taste, conversation, and immediate audience encounters.
Free entry and open until the end
The event starts on Saturday, November 21, 2026, at 7:30 PM in the foyer of FFT Düsseldorf. Admission is free. As an open format, cook mal accompanies the evening until the end and transforms the theater foyer into a place where art is not only observed but experienced together.
Conclusion: A theater evening to taste
cook mal promises an atmospheric stage experience that blurs the boundaries between theater, performance, visual art, and culinary arts. Those who want to experience Düsseldorf as an international cultural location and explore the Nippon Performance Nights with all senses will find an unusual, open access to contemporary stage art here.
Official channels of cook mal:
- Instagram: no official profile found
- Facebook: no official profile found
- YouTube: no official profile found
- Website: https://www.tacolv.org/cookmal.html
