PERMANENT BREAKFAST

Forming Spaces / Making Connections / Creating Networks

time frame: start date: 1. Mai 1996
ongoing

initiators: Friedemann Derschmidt

users: The Art of Creating Breakfasts
A person invites others to breakfast in a public space. In return the guests agree to hold a breakfast in a public the next day (or on the next possible day), the guests of which in turn hold a breakfast as soon as possible, and so on.

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The main idea:
On the morning of the first of may 1996 a group of artists around friedemann derschmidt began to breakfast in public places.
The idea is quite simple and catching:

One person invites to breakfast in a public space - the invited persons (usually 4) commit themselves to organize another public breakfast with different persons in a different place as soon as possible, and so on and so forth.

Following the snowball principle, there would be 1.6 mio. people publicly breakfasting no later than on the tenth day.

As a matter of fact, the public breakfast became a kind of cult, and more often people could be seen taking a seat at a beautifully set breakfast table standing on a spare parking space in a parking lot, an empty disfunctional fountain or in parks or malls.

Hundreds of photos (some of them from Praha, Berlin, Oslo and Melbourn to name a few ) have been sent as prove of the many different places and breakfasts that have had been held.

Some expected breakfast results could be observed: The public space changes to the needs of the breakfasting people. The breakfasters start to communicate with their surroundings, just by being there without much of their active doing. They become their own medium to take space, to be space and to change it - things are told, things are heard and breakfasts are eaten. Again and again and again.

Quotes:
"Open space as a medium, the act of breakfasting as art, art as a way of communication, through which the former open space will be transformed: that is how simple breakfast in the open can be.
(Austrian newspaper - Der Standard)

"Breakfast in public places as the own street, in the park, between public buildings, on the sidewalk and so on is a contribution to the urban communication. The Viennese version of the Speakers Corner. Tourists become curious, ask, and after being told an invited to breakfast promise to start new breakfast lines in their own cities and to send photos."
(Friedemann Derschmidt)

Rules of the game:
Nr.1
5 people are sitting around a set table, breakfasting in a public place. One of them has had invited.
Nr.2
Every breakfast has to be recognizably one ( clothes, set table, chairs, foot ) and is an individual happening in the public.
Nr.3
Every one of the invited ones has to organize a public breakfast as soon as possible, with different participants in a different place. The one that does the inviting covers the costs.
Nr.4
The breakfasting persons invite passer-bys to their table and tell them about the rules of the game.
Nr.5
The starting of new breakfast lines is welcome.
Nr.6
In case of unpredictable or unavoidable problems ( bad weather, thread of loss of working place....) should the breakfast take place at the next possible agreeable date.
Nr.7
For the juridical side ( depending on your countries laws about meeting in public places ) of the breakfast , every one has to take care individually. Everyone is in charge of his own breakfast.
Nr.8
For the planed "PermanentBreak - Feast" (invitations will follow eventually) and the "Breakfast Catalog" lots of material will be needed: the participants should document their breakfast (photos, videos, audio tracks, written testimonies...) and send their results to: friedemann@p-breakfast.net

Forming Spaces:
Public space undergoes vital visible changes when breakfasts are taking place. Just by being present the breakfasters start to communicate with their
surroundings, to be their own medium, to take up space, to occupy not only the table but to lay claim to the public space itself. The breakfasters shape these situations themselves and, by looking from a different angle, become sensitive towards both the use and the usability of the public space and feel encouraged to use their own creativity as well as to occupy new space to be themselves.

Making Connections:
People meet directly by acting together at the same place at the same time. They aim at spreading the idea of Permanent Breakfast. They look for dates and places for further common actions. Their experiences are documented and published on the net (texts, photographs, videos etc.) to provide people standing outside the possibility and incentive to directly examine and to actually join in.

Creating Networks:
Every single breakfaster becomes part of a sublime network which transcends the obvious individual context of friendship, acquaintance, guest and host. She creates and stimulates, influences the structure and the development of the Social Plastic far more than she can actually understand. In towns, a former host may meet breakfasters he didnt know and can get in touch with them without beating about the bush. They will discover things in common because of the rules of Permanent Breakfast, for example their ability to connect the present breakfast with one initiated by themselves. Additionally, they may discover new links through spontaneously getting to talk to ach other.

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legal: For the juridical side ( depending on your countries laws about meeting in public places ) of the breakfast , every one has to take care individually. Everyone is in charge of his own breakfast.

technical: Infrastructure:
folding table, folding chairs, signboard permanent breakfast

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