Unique edition
8 1/4” x 10” x 1/2”
2014
This work was created for the art and food show “Lettere dolci e salate” (Sweet and Savory Letters) in the Biblioteca Ruffilli as part of the annual International Edible Book Festival which takes place around the world in April each year. This edible piece is a parody of Lorenz’s edition “Bologna Sample” (1992) which depicts 179 colors of specific buildings in the center of Bologna, Italy. In English, the processed meat is spelled the same as the city, but pronounced “baloney” when referring to the meat. Cured meats are “Salumi” in Italian, and they exist in many varieties and colors, a number of which are produced locally in the region Emilia Romagna. The salumi also happen to be similar to the colors of the palazzos in the center of Bologna.
The types of cured meats were researched and sourced at the historic shop Ditta Tamburini on Via Orefici, and the names of each meat were printed on edible paper made of potato starch in the same font and format as the text of Bologna Sample, which mimics the lettering on Bologna’s street signs.
Bologna (Salumi) Sample was auctioned off to the highest bidder, which turned out to be the renowned food journalist Faith Willinger. She gave it to the butcher Dario Cecchini as a present, albeit a highly perishable one.
Other perishable works, collaborations between artists and local restaurants, were also auctioned off to benefit the library that hosted the show. Non-perishable works on view included Massimo Bottura’s blackened flour-and-salt mold for cooking tongue, featured in one of the chef’s creative videos, and some of Lorenz’s faux food works, including Bacon’s Bits of Broken Knowledge and Sir Thomas’more, items 55. and 56. on the index.
To memorialize the performance, and render it replicable, Lorenz created a ceramic version of the edible piece in 2017, exactly 25 years after the original inspiration, Bologna Sample (1992), item 24. on the index.
Angelonium 