Alexis Dahan Is Serving Up Fast Food Philosophy

Dear New Yorkers, what do you like with your dirty-water dog? Yellow mustard, sauerkraut, or how about, say, a liberal slathering of Gustave Courbet? Today, on 22nd Street right below the High Line in Chelsea, Alexis Dahan is opening “We Serve Selected Texts,” a pop-up art installation built into a hot dog cart. It comes replete with canvas umbrellas, vendor permit, and garish signage—only, in place of “Cold Soda” and “Hot Pretzels” there is a selection of ever-refreshing “Art Theory” and “Philosophy” texts. For a mere dollar, visitors flocking to the Richard Serra show at Gagosian a block away can stop off at the cart to grab a Japanese-paper scroll with an excerpted passage from the writings of Martin Heidegger, Carl Andre, and Joseph Kosuth, among others. (To be clear, hot dogs are not actually on the menu.) It’s not as much of a guilty pleasure as a tube of unknown animal parts, but the small bites of thought-provoking text are hopefully more nutritious. “I want people to come for a hot dog,” says Dahan, “and get Heidegger.”

“We Serve Selected Texts” is made possible by Anonymous Star Project Space, and will alternate between locations on 21st and 22nd Street, between 10th and 11th Avenue in New York through November 23, 2013.