Alina Grasmann: The Grand Buffet at Hause Schminke

The subject of Grasmann's most recent series, The Grand Buffet, is Haus Schminke, a landmark of modernist architecture built by Hans Scharoun in the Saxon countryside in the early 1930s. Its round forms, porthole-like window treatments, colorful ceilings, and direct connections through glass walls to nature - reminiscent of Arcosanti - were designed as a fun experience, especially for the four children of the Schminke family. Grasmann's paintings recreate this intent, tracing the feeling she had when visiting the place, and awakening the viewer's own childhood memories. The title of the series is an allusion to the classic 1973 film La Grande Bouffe (The Big Feast). The film revolves around food and transience of life – the memento mori refrains found both in still lifes of old masters and in the history of Haus Schminke.

​

The Schminkes' noodle factory, situated directly behind the house, had been a family business since 1904. World War II started shortly after the house was completed. Fritz Schminke’s son Harald was killed on the battlefield and Fritz was taken prisoner and convicted as a war criminal because his company had supplied the Wehrmacht with noodles. After the war, the pasta factory was expropriated by the East German government, the Schminkes divorced, and their house became a recreation center for communist boy scouts, falling into disrepair until the reunification of Germany.  

Alina Grasmann's paintings are rooted in histories and architecture of specific places - from the intentional community of Arcosanti, Arizona, to Montauk, New York, where (according to a fictional conspiracy theory) the government conducts experiments in paranormal activities, to the "paper town" of Agloe - a fictitious mark on a map made to trap copyright infringement. It is telling that the sites of Grasmann's previous bodies of work are located in the United States, where new mythologies seem to emerge on a daily basis, and the border between fiction and fact resembles more a sound wave than a straight line. An exceptionally skilled painter, Grasmann identifies and skirts this blurry border at will, imbuing real interiors with reflection, glare, and magical references to iconic artworks, films, toys, and food.

Grasmann's depictions of Haus Schminke highlight the duality of its history: built to celebrate life, today it can only be seen in the context of its downfall. However, it is not Grasmann's intention to bring the old ghosts to life. Instead, she creates spaces for new stories, in which we, the viewers, or rather the phenomena around us, are the protagonists. ​Connecting with the motifs of her previous work, Grasmann paints domestic interiors as if people just left, with only a few objects, such as an overturned glass or a burning sparkler, referring to human presence.