Is it a dinner party, performance art event, or interactive art exhibition? The 5-course food event titled A Madeleine Moment is all of the above. Referencing the way a culinary experience can trigger vivid childhood memories, as Marcel Proust described in the novel Remembrance of Things Past, the event is just the latest in a long line of Burnt Asphalt Family performance-art happenings. It blurs the lines between performer and audience, art and food, and ultimately seeks to erase the boundary between art and life, itself. Among the few things one can say for sure about the proceedings set to take place at the Agnes Varis Art Center this coming Saturday, September 27, is that it is curated by longtime collaborators Erica Rosenfeld and Jessica Jane Julius, supports the Brooklyn arts non-profit UrbanGlass, and will involve a large community of creative friends. It will also exhibit artwork by artists such as Jen Monroe aka Bad Taste, Deborah Czeresko, Einar and Jamex De la Torre, Andrea Dezsö, Cedric Mitchell, Leo Tecosky, Jessica Tsai, among many others. After the opening, the exhibition will remain on view through November 8, 2025. (One more detail: tickets are completely sold out though Rosenfeld and Julius will return at the end of the exhibition in early November for a closing event that will be part of the UrbanGlass Academic Symposium, and open to all attendees of that three-day event.)
The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet caught up with co-curators Erica Rosenfeld and Jessica Julius to ask about what audiences might expect in the upcoming event to help them prepare for what promises to be a memorable evening. Their collaborative answers are presented below, identified by their collective name of "Burnt Asphalt Family."
Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet: What can those who were lucky enough to get a ticket to the event on Saturday be prepared to experience?
Burnt Asphalt Family: Our work, whether in the hot shop or in a gallery, celebrates the cultural histories of glass making, food making, and performance. Rooted in the spirit of experimentation and subverting normative practices, we curate experiences where the audience is an essential part and we never consider a piece complete until it has been consumed or experienced by our guests. At every Burnt Asphalt event, glass and food are our primary materials, and we use them to create participatory works that blend interactive installation, performance, shared meals, and happenings. In this way, the event at UrbanGlass will remain true to the spirit of our past events: communal, experimental, and centered on audience engagement.
Glass: You have a long track-record of these performance happenings, often taking place in hot glass studios. I've been lucky enough to see iterations at UrbanGlass and at Corning, but I know the list of venues is long and geographically diverse. How might A Madeline Moment differ from what has come before in Burnt Asphalt's exhibition history?
Burnt Asphalt Family: What will be different at UrbanGlass is the setting and the format. From our inception in 2007, we have been transforming spaces through glass-based culinary performances in the studio, experimenting with ephemeral hot glass sculptures and fire-based cooking for audiences of 25–150 people. In 2018, we expanded into the gallery, presenting a five-course tasting menu through edible installations made from food sculptures, glass, and found materials. The UrbanGlass event will build on these evolutions.
Glass: Will it be very different as I understand this one will not be situated in front of a molten glass furnace and without some of the other elements of an active glass shop?
Burnt Asphalt Family: Unlike the traditional hot shop performances, it will also function as a gallery experience where, after guests have engaged with and deconstructed our work, the remnants will remain on view as artifacts of a collective experience. The exhibition is up for a couple of months beginning with an activation event and followed by multiple points of engagement and we invite people to join us in the various programs. The exhibition is up for a month and half, beginning with an activation event and continuing through multiple points of engagement, inviting people to return and participate in various ways.
IF YOU GO:
Burnt Asphalt Family
"A Madeline Moment"
September 28th–November 8th, 2025
Opening event: September 27th, 2025, 7–11 pm
Agnes Varis Art Center
UrbanGlass
647 Fulton St
Brooklyn, New York
T: 718 625 3685
Event Website