A secret society dinner LARP * Live Action Role Play

What does it mean to be invited and what does it mean when we are not invited? What are the other barriers and different ways in which we can be invited but not welcome, or invited but not able to attend? What are the rules of a dinner party? What are the rules of our government?

Ten artists and curators were invited to a “Secret Society Dinner” in Århus at the gallery Rum46 by the artist Francis Patrick Brady. During the lead up to this dinner the artist met with all the invitees at a “secret meeting” and gave them a large brightly coloured fabric patchwork envelope that contained a paper invitation to the Secret Dinner. They were invited to attend the dinner playing the role of themselves but having created a secret “true-self” that they were to keep secret from other people. They were told that the password to gain entry into the dinner was ‘Rødgrød med fløde’ (Red Porridge with Cream) but pronounce it incorrectly. Rødgrød med Fløde is a traditional Danish dish and a phrase often used to test non-native Danish speakers’ ability to form the notoriously difficult glottal stop (Stød) of the Danish language. The invitation also asked them to bring some food and also some other contribution to the secret society which could be a sculpture, a conceptual work of art, a poem, a song, a drink, a set of plates, a table cloth, a speech, an outfit or attitude.

Feast of the Red Porridge imitates and mimics the traditional Artist dinner which is usually held after the opening of an exhibition with curators and collectors and other special guests and is often an invite only affair. These dinners are not called “Secret Dinners” but they are, in effect, private and secretive affairs where the invited people network and make deals away from the general public.

The project was about the physical embodiment of experiencing secrecy first-hand. A clandestine playtesting of insiders and outsiders, the realities of cloak and dagger politics.