In just one and a half weeks a restaurant was conceived, designed, created, and organized in Oulu, Finland in 1994. It opened up for a single night, was attended by many guests, and disappeared again by the following afternoon. Anyone who wanted to could participate in the project and do whatever he or she wanted to do, as long as it fitted into the theme of “a restaurant”.
The rules were simple: anyone could react to the ideas and work of others but was only allowed to make a modification using the output of others as a starting point for further development. It was not allowed to destroy the work of someone else. In this way a kind of open creative dialogue took place where many people could participate as they wished and at any time.
The art critic writing for the major national newspaper (The Helsingin Sanomat) described the event as follows: “The Magic Restaurant Ravintola Sampo is: a sampo of ideas and thoughts; a temporary museum that demonstrates all the things a restaurant can be; a fantasy restaurant where a ‘mythical’ restaurant meets a ‘real’ restaurant”.
the Magic Restaurant.pdf