The Art Dinner at The Agency titled Left.Overs, was a collaboration between Magda Fabianczyk, Niels Staats and Sarah Jury from the Pigeon Wing – the curator of the exhibition 2009 Retrospective. This time, instead of focusing on a singular artist’s work the idea was to reflect on the exhibition as a whole, emphasising the processes involved in making the work, which was produced specifically for The Agency.

For 2009 Retrospective artists were asked to re-make work that was originally created for The Pigeon Wing in a way that responded to the environmental differences between The Pigeon Wing and the new exhibition space-The Agency. They were given basic information on the measurements of each space, The Agency being just over 40% of the size of The Pigeon Wing. They were also aware of the opposing objectives that determine the character of both spaces.

Each of the guests; exhibiting artists, Bea de Souza – the owner of The Agency, Nicola Pomery from PoSt Projects and Alastair T. Willey from Pigeon Wing, were asked to contribute to the dinner from leftovers. The rules were simple – one could make any dish, but every single “ingredient”* had to be modified. “Ingredients” could be mixed, reduced, extracted etc. The “re-making” of the food mirrored thinking processes implicated in all the exhibited work.

Guests were invited to participate in the food preparation that started at 5pm in the gallery’s kitchen. The act of cooking together was an ice-breaking introduction to later discussed subjects. Particular approaches taken by the guests became noticeable. Some decided to collaborate, influencing one another during the cooking process. Others felt uneasy about suggested modifications. Quality became questionable.

Cooking together acted as an experiment revealing or highlighting issues involved in the process of art making and curating, that could be taken further and discussed during the dinner.

At 7pm, all food was taken to the exhibition space and participants sat in a circle. For a little while conversation revolved around the bizarre and unexpected outcome of the cooking, later in the evening Sarah intervened, initiating conversations related to the subject of the exhibition and engaging in discussion with Bea.

*one ingredient is one leftover dish