Alina and Jeff Bliumis A PAINTING FOR A FAMILY DINNER
2008-ongoing

A Painting For A Family Dinner is a broad socially engaged artistic initiative, developed in different cultural contexts and continents: Dortmund, Germany / 2025, Tokyo, Japan / 2021, Lecce, Italy / 2013, Beijing, China / 2013, Bronx, New York, US / 2012 and Bat-Yam, Israel / 2008. Altogether, we had dinners with sixty two families.

For A Painting For A Family Dinner project, we placed a call for participation in the media and via social networking sites to local residents:

"Husband and wife artist team is offering a painting in exchange for an invitation to a family dinner. Please, email or call for more info..."

When families responded to the call for participation, we visited as many homes as we could. Participation was based on a first-come-first-served basis. There were no guidelines for our interactions, and we were open to any discussions that occurred. We created a painting for each occasion in advance. Each painting was a still life with fruits and "Thank You for Your Dinner!" written in the middle. At the end of each dinner, all participants were seated on a family couch, with the painting hung above the couch, for a family portrait--to be taken by a local photographer. The painting stayed with the family.


Installation view: Alina and Jeff Bliumis, A Painting For A Family Dinner 2008-2025, part of  At the Table. Eating and Drinking in Contemporary Art, curated by Christina Danick and Michael Griff, Museum Ostwall at the Dortmunder U (MO), May 8 - July 20, 2025.

The project is not about a painting or a dinner, but about the displacement of the familial/familiar by virtue of artistic initiative. The project was embedded in the real life of the community and depended on the participation of local residents. The process was inclusive and welcoming for everyone in the neighborhood(s) and community(s). The artists and the families were equal and active co-creators of the project. Many members of the local cultural scene were involved in the research, creation, production, and dissemination of the project in its different stages.

A Painting For A Family Dinner eliminates the artificial separation between art and life in the place of the familial/familiar. A platform for exchange and conversation is provided, overcoming the distance that normally exists between the artist(s) and audience--by establishing an opportunity for engagement with enriched and expanded forms of sociality (inter-and intra-cultural). The project embodies artistic practice as a form of civic engagement and social intervention. The project's main objective is to enable cultural and social transformation by integrating art as a reflective practice, an exchange, and a communicative experience within the everyday setting of family life.

This artistic intervention engages all participants in expanding the value and the meaning of social interaction -- as what engulfs the familial/familiar place of sharing time and food. The foundation of the project is the creation of a place or a moment where the public and the private spheres overlap and reformulate; art in the private space reshaping the public sphere itself. The other elements of the concept are openness and thankfulness; openness is about welcoming the possibilities of communication with a stranger; and thankfulness is the acknowledgment of debt and the values inherent to the potlatch, a gift-giving economic system practiced by indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest.

The long-term objectives are to expand the sphere of the social experience of all those involved, by injecting extra-/intra-social/cultural/economic dimensions into the familial/familiar space; and to make the arts more meaningful in the realities of individual's lives in different societies and countries, by effectuating art as a transformative experience of co-active being and co-active thinking.

Dortmund, Germany / February 2-14, 2025 We had meals with eleven families in Dortmund and in the nearby area. A Painting For A Family Dinner, Dortmund, Germany was produced by MuseumOstwall at the Dortmunder U (MO) as part of the exhibition At the Table. Eating and Drinking in Contemporary Art, curated by Christina Danick and Michael Griff / Photographer Daniel Sadrowski

Tokyo, Japan / July 2021 Because of Covid travel restrictions we met with twelve families via zoom. A Painting For A Family Dinner, Tokyo, Japan was produced by Tokyo Biennale 2021 and part of Social Dive, Tokyo Biennale 2021 / Photographer Aya Morimoto

Lecce, Italy / Between October 11-17, 2013 We had meals with ten families all over Lecce and in the nearby area. A Painting For A Family Dinner, Lecce, Italy was produced by Ammirato Culture House (ACH), (ACH), Lecce, Italy / Photographer Alessia Rollo

Beijing, China / Between September 13-21, 2013 We had meals with ten families all over Beijing A Painting For A Family Dinner, Beijing, China was produced with assistance from the Inside-Out Art Museum (IOAM) Artist Residency, Beijing, China, 2013./ Photographer Du Yang

Bronx, New York, US / Between March 24 and May 6, 2012 We had meals with thirteen families all over the Bronx. A Painting For A Family Dinner, Bronx, NY, US was part of the exhibition This Side of Paradise curated by the organization NoLongerEmpty at the Bronx Museum of the Arts NY. / Photographer Anton Trofymov

Bat-Yam, Israel / Between April 7-12 2008, We had dinners with six families all across Bat Yam and Tel Aviv. A Painting For A Family Dinner, Bat Yam, Israel was produced by Museums of Bat Yam (MOBY), Israel and part of the exhibition Hosting curated by Milana Gitzin-Adiram and Leah Abir, 2008. / Photographer Dafna Gazit

Alina and Jeff Bliumis A Painting For A Family Dinner is published by Museum Ostwall at the Dortmunder U and Verlag Kettler, Germany, May 2025. The publication is being issued on occasion of the exhibition AT THE TABLE: Eating and Drinking in Contemporary Art at Museum Ostwall at the Dortmunder U, Germany. May 8 - July 20th, 2025. 

The publication documents our journey: 62 host families, 62 FAMILY PORTRAITS, 6 countries - Dortmund, Germany 2025, Tokyo, Japan 2022, Lecce, Italy 2013, Beijing, China 2013, Bronx, NY, USA 2012, Bat Yam, Israel 2008. FOREWORD by Regina Selter WHO REPRESENTS A CITY? by Christina Danick and Michael Griff. OUR DIARY - short recounts of all dinners in chronological order, photo documentation and family recipes collected along the way.

Design by Lea Szramek Verlag Kettler. Concept and editing by Alina  Bliumis. Jeff Bliumis. Christina Danick, Michael Griff. PHOTOGRAPHERS Bat Yam 2008 / Dafna Gazit, Bronx 2012 / Anton Trofymov, Beijing 2013 / Du Yang, Lecce 2013 /  Alessia Rollo, Tokyo 2021  /  Aya Morimoto, Dortmund 2025  / Daniel Sadrowski

PUBLISHING HOUSE: Verlag Kettler
The book is available for preorder worldwide at the publisher website: 
1st edition / ISBN 978-3-98741-185-4