Soup & Tart: Los Angeles
Presented by MOCA and Active Cultures
Thursday June 8
6pm-10pm
Tickets $30 / $28 for MOCA Members
Includes admission and 6 food tickets
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA

Presented by MOCA and Active Cultures
Produced by Active Cultures
Organized by Sarah Cooper

 50 artists, 6 chefs
a marathon of 2 minute performances

Taking inspiration from Soup & Tart, an event devised by Fluxus artist Jean Dupuy in 1974, held at New York's downtown art space The Kitchen, Soup & Tart: Los Angeles brings together fifty artists, musicians, and dancers from across Los Angeles’ cultural landscape, inviting them to use two minutes in any way they like: an improvisation, song, action, movement, or text.

As the performances roll on, a lineup of LA chefs will serve up their take on delicious soup and tarts for all. During the 1974 happening, bowls of lentil soup and French apple tarts were served when artists such as Phillip Glass, Yvonne Rainer, Arthur Russell, Laurie Anderson, Gordon Matta-Clark, Hannah Wilke, Richard Serra, and Joan Jonas entertained the crowd.

Just as Dupuy's Soup & Tart took place in a pivotal moment for the artists of its generation, this experiment aims to ask what the models of earlier avant-gardes can reveal in the here and now. Poised to be a night of the unexpected, Soup & Tart: Los Angeles seeks to capture that magical sense of convening that is only possible when enjoyed with good food.

Organized by curator Sarah Cooper, the lineup will include a vast array of creative figures from across the city. The full list of participating artists and chefs will be announced this spring.

Admission ticket includes one of each soup and tart.  

Active Cultures is a public arts organization in Los Angeles exploring the confluence of food and art through public projects, programs, and publishing. 

Sarah Cooper is a curator, writer, and art historian based in Los Angeles. She is the Public Programs Specialist for performance at the J. Paul Getty Museum, where she directs the experimental series Ever Present, among other programs. She is a 2022 recipient of the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant. Her M.A. thesis, Expanding Experimentalism: Popular Music and Art at the Kitchen in New York City, 1971-1985, explores the creative output of artists' bands and the relationship between popular music and avant-garde art practices.

Soup & Tart: Los Angeles and Active Cultures’ programs are made possible in part by the Active Cultures Board of Directors; the Gatherers Annual Fund; California Arts Council; the Kohl Family Foundation; and the Los Angeles Visual Arts (LAVA) Coalition.

Wonmi’s WAREHOUSE Programs is organized by Alex Sloane, Associate Curator, and is produced by Amelia Charter, Producer of Performance and Programs, with Brian Dang, Programming Coordinator, and Michele Huizar, Programming Assistant, The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles.

Wonmi’s WAREHOUSE Programs is founded by Wonmi & Kihong Kwon and Family

Image courtesy of Active Cultures