Have You Eaten Yet?
A group exhibition exploring our desire for convenience and what lies behind the promise of having everything at our fingertips.
In Thai culture, asking “have you eaten yet?” is a common way of checking in on someone, a simple question that conveys care and connection through the making and sharing of food. However, with the rise of food delivery platforms, a full meal is never more than a few taps away through a system that is deliberately impersonal and streamlined. Your phone offers a seemingly endless menu of cuisines from around the world, all brought together in one continuous scroll. Before we know it, we’re moving from temptation to craving, from wanting something to having it.
Have You Eaten Yet? opens at MaMA on Friday, November 20, in collaboration with program maker Sean Seil. Using our appetite for takeaway food as a starting-point, the exhibition explores how convenience has come to shape so much more of our lives. Behind the promise of instant access and effortless consumption are people and processes we rarely see. What gets left out of the picture when convenience becomes second nature?
An insatiable appetite
We don’t just order food. We spend hours watching it, too. From videos of people eating enormous quantities of food to apps that seem to know what we’re craving before we do. One image leads to another, while notifications and recommendations keep tempting us with something new. How much of what we want is really our own?
Passing through many hands
By the time a meal arrives at your door, it has already been on quite a journey. Think of the people who grow and prepare our food, or the delivery riders weaving through the city. Even the corner shop has stories to tell, shaped by migration and memories attached to a particular place. The plastic bag we carry our groceries in holds traces of its previous journeys. And then there’s the time it takes to grow something, along with the knowledge passed down through generations.
Program and collaborations
On December 16, MaMA and Pauluskerk, a Rotterdam community space that supports people experiencing homelessness and people without valid residence permits, will host a lunch for the church’s visitors, prepared by chef Perry de Man. The lunch returns to the question that inspired the exhibition: “Have you eaten yet?” This time, it becomes an invitation to share a meal together.
On December 3, program maker Sean Seil will be on Operator Radio, exploring the exhibition’s themes further through music and poetry. We’ll also be hosting guided tours and a workshop with artist duo Inconvenience Store, where you can try your hand at fermentation and discover what happens when you give food the time it needs.
Keep an eye on our newsletter, website, and social media for more information and confirmed dates.
Featuring work by
Ella Wang Olsson
Maria Mombers
Lea Novi
Metincan Güzel
Arnaud Adami
Cengiz Mengüç
Inconvenience Store (Urvee Kulkarni & İpek Şahin)
About Sean Seil
Sean Seil grew up in Singapore, has roots in Thailand and Luxembourg, and now lives in Rotterdam. As an artist and program maker, he tries to make sense of a world that seems to be moving faster and faster, with an endless set of rules to navigate. A graduate of the Willem de Kooning Academy, Sean moves freely between embroidery, drawing and writing, never quite settling on a single medium.
He is fascinated by the relationship between making and consuming, especially in a world where money allows us to outsource almost anything. Making things offers him a chance to slow down and give something his full attention. But eventually, restlessness always seems to find its way back…
Opening hours and admission
November 20, 2026 – January 17, 2027
MaMA, Witte de Withstraat 29-31, Rotterdam
Wednesday to Sunday, 1-6 PM
Admission: €3,50
Free admission for visitors under 18, Rotterdampas holders and during Kunstavond (Art Evening), held on the first Friday of every month from 6-9 PM.
Made possible by
This exhibition is made possible with the support of the Mondriaan Fund, the Municipality of Rotterdam, Cultuurfonds Zuid-Holland, VSBfonds, Stichting Elise Mathilde and Stichting Volkskracht.