Stockland Martel

Take note, all you pyrotechnicians and pastry chefs out there. Hans Gissinger’s “Tartas,” a photo series centering on exploding cakes prepared by a master baker, will make its U.S. debut at the Gallery at Stockland Martel. The opening is from 6 to 8 on Thursday, June 4 (everyone’s welcome to attend; RSVP to [email protected] or just click ). Expect lots of spectacularly crisp images of baked-goods parts in flight—kind of like if Edweard Muybridge had had a sweet tooth—plus a comical video showing members of Gissinger’s crew and a few other good sports calmly allowing various pastries to erupt right in front of their face. Flour power indeed.

The “Tartas” video will also be featured in a major group show running July 22 through September 26 in Salzburg, Austria, titled “Malzeit!” (rough translation: “Food!”). The lineup for this exhibition is stellar, to say the least: Marina Abramovic, Andy Warhol, Maria Lassnig, Dieter Roth, and Zhang Huan are among the artists whose work will be on display. (For the full list, go here: http://www.salzburg.gv.at/themen/ks/kultur/traklhaus/traklhaus_vorschau_09/traklhaus-ausstellung2009_7.htm)

Gissinger began “Tartas” in 2005 as collaboration with world-renowned pastry chef Christian Escribà. The two wanted to celebrate the 100th birthday of Escribà’s eponymous Barcelona-based bakery, a serious milestone for which they agreed on a decidedly un-serious tribute. “The exploding cake calls out for lightness, freedom, and the refusal of manipulation,” reads a line from the pair’s official description of the project. In practice, this means that all of Escribà’s hard work, all those meticulously crafted pastries, winds up splattered on every nearby surface and person in close range, and everyone has a great time watching it happen. “It’s always nice to explode things,” observes Gissinger. “It’s somehow happy.”