Margaretha Jüngling's Food-Based Art Explores Pleasure and Politics

The article, part of Flash Art Italia and Istituto Svizzero's 'Close Up' series, examines the practice of artist margaretha jüngling, who uses food to investigate cultural, social, and power dynamics. Jüngling's work often involves fermentation, beets, and symbolic foods like eggs, apples, and bread. Her project 'red curtain' (2026) at Quartier Général Centre d’art contemporain in La Chaux-de-Fonds featured fermented beet braids hung on meat hooks, referencing the building's past as a slaughterhouse and prompting reflection on meat consumption and the grotesque. During her residency at Villa Maraini in Rome, she researched the maritozzo, a sweet bun, culminating in a March 2026 event at Lateral Roma where she served savory beet buns with almond cream in a suspended bowl. Her practice includes poetic readings and emphasizes sensory engagement, drawing on theorists like Donna Haraway, Anna Tsing, Sara Ahmed, Georges Bataille, bell hooks, Simone Weil, adrienne maree brown, and Ursula Le Guin. Jüngling's work aligns with feminist and post-humanist thought, positioning food as a relational, political, and pleasurable medium.