Take: a sliced bagel roll, five slices of avocado, five slices of tomato, five onion rings, 10 rocket leaves, twelve kilograms of gold – and two Swabian rascals who compose an extraordinary and unique work of art from it.
One of the two rascals, the world-renowned artist Tim Bengel from Esslingen, presented his new artwork at Art Week in Berlin: An avocado bagel made of pure gold and consisting of 27 individual parts under the title “Who wants to live forever?” For the conception and realisation of the bagel, Bengel trusted the “arts” of his friend Bernd Kußmaul, the other rascal. The 29-year-old has known Kussmaul GmbH in Großheppach in the Rems Valley for over two years from other projects. Kussmaul took over the technical consulting for the Gold Bagel, selected the right network partners and supervised all steps of the production process. The 10-strong polishing team of Kussmaul GmbH, which is one of the best in the world and works for renowned car brands such as Bugatti and Rolls Royces, ensured the multi-faceted shine on the initially matt surfaces of the gold.
The project had begun before Corona with a joint dinner, to which Bengel brought the ingredients for a real and tasty avocado bagel and at which he presented his idea to Kussmaul. The initial enthusiasm quickly turned into the first concept study. Then everything went its course: first, various bagel rolls were tested in the original. Then the first scans were produced and prepared for 3D printing. These were then checked for aesthetics by Bengel. After that, a first wax model was created and the preparation for melting and recasting the gold was started. In the so-called “lost-form” process, the first parts were finally cast, fine-ground and assembled for the first time. Finally, all the parts – from the crunchy sesame seed to the watery flesh of the tomato to the smooth hollow in which the avocado pit is otherwise stored – received their very special manual surface treatment.
Bernd Kußmaul: “It was a great honour for my team and me to be able to support Tim Bengel in his spectacular work of art over the past 20 months. If Corona hadn’t got in our way, we would have finished even faster. We knew the high artistic standards Tim sets for himself and his art. He knew our consulting know-how, our high-level expertise in treating high-quality surfaces and our efficiency in implementation. He knew he could always rely on our skill in his work.”
Bengel had first made a name for himself in the art world with works made of sand and gold; now, for the first time, he has dedicated himself to a sculpture. Why the avocado? For Ben-gel, this fruit is the symbol of his Millennials generation. The avocado stands for health, beauty, veganism and the “green lifestyle”. In addition, the global interest in the fruit is closely linked to the rapid adaptation of the internet and social media, where avocado consumption is celebrated. At the same time, however, there is a double standard: the thirst of the plant can dry out entire regions and repeatedly leads to armed conflicts in the cultivation areas.
The artist sees parallels here with Greek mythology, especially the story of the greedy King Midas, who turned everything he touched to gold and almost starved to death as a result. In Bengel’s view, today’s turbo-capitalism with its unbridled profit maximisation is destroying the economic, social and societal foundations of its actors ever faster.
