In Life in 7 Bytes, multidisciplinary artist Mercedes Noam Kostucki transforms the act of communion into a poetic ritual — a sensory meditation on humanity, intimacy, and the courage to reinvent oneself. The work unfolds as an immersive theatre performance in a private home, where food, storytelling, photography, sculpture, and costume design merge into a single, living artwork.

At its heart, Life in 7 Bytes is a rebellion — an act of resistance against a world increasingly defined by screens, automation, and scalability. In an era when technology mediates nearly every human encounter, Kostucki invites small groups of guests to gather around a table, share time, and become family for an evening. Each performance is intimate, unrepeatable, and handcrafted — an offering made by one human being to another.

The narrative follows “the grandmother who will never be” — a persona through which the artist channels memory, wisdom, and longing. Kostucki has long carried within her the archetype of a grandmother — the maternal presence that guides, nurtures, and passes on knowledge. Through this character, she reclaims an impossible identity that transcends logic and time.

Each of the seven chapters of Life in 7 Bytes reveals a defining moment of transformation — moments of love, loss, and reinvention that shaped the artist’s understanding of what it means to be human. Every story culminates in an edible creation, a sensory translation of emotion into taste, texture, and form. There is no menu. There are no courses. There is only story — and the taste of what story feels like.

The “bytes” of the title operate on multiple levels: they are the bites of food that sustain us, the digital bytes that structure our modern world, and the metaphorical bites we take out of life itself. The number seven, recurring throughout human culture — from the seven wonders to the seven virtues and sins — here becomes a symbolic structure through which to explore the essence of being human.

For Kostucki, Life in 7 Bytes is not only a performance but an integration — the convergence of a lifetime of artistic disciplines and experiences. Her career spans photography, painting, sculpture, writing, theatre, and culinary creation. She has received a Thespian award for her early theatre work in high school, exhibited photography at the European Union’s Innovation Conference, painted large-scale murals, designed architectural spaces, and authored nine books. Through these diverse expressions, she has continually sought to dissolve the artificial boundaries between art forms, art and life itself.

In this new work, Kostucki reclaims her multiplicity as an artist and a human being. For years, she was told that true mastery required specialization — that to do many things was to do none well. Life in 7 Bytes defies that notion. It is a Gesamtkunstwerk — a “total artwork” — that unites her mastery across disciplines into one intimate, embodied performance.

The show is also an act of healing. In a society that fragments identity and rewards conformity, Kostucki uses art to weave herself whole again. Through storytelling, she transforms personal history into collective myth. Through cooking, she redefines nourishment as a creative and spiritual act. And through performance, she invites the audience to see themselves in her stories — to recognize their own capacity for transformation.

Each evening is unique. The artist performs alone, with no staff or assistants, crafting the edible creations in real time as she speaks. The participants bring their own drinks, their own presence, and their own willingness to engage. They are not passive spectators but co-creators — witnesses and interlocutors whose reactions and questions shape the unfolding of the performance. The work exists in the delicate space between artist and audience, between host and guest, between the familiar and the sacred.

Intimacy lies at the core of Kostucki’s practice. She reclaims the word from its limited association with sexuality and restores it to its broader, more essential meaning: emotional closeness, vulnerability, and shared presence. For her, intimacy is a social necessity — the antidote to a culture of distraction and detachment. By inviting strangers to share a meal in her home, she recreates the rituals of belonging that define what it means to be human.

The grandmother’s kitchen becomes a sanctuary for slowness — a space where time is given back its full dimension. Over three hours, guests are drawn into a world of stories, colors, scents, and flavors. They witness the artist cooking, transforming, and revealing herself, not through spectacle but through presence. The setting — a home, not a stage — is itself part of the message: that art can live in the everyday, and that the sacred is often found in the ordinary.

Ultimately, Life in 7 Bytes is a work about possibility. It asks: if this woman, this artist, can reinvent herself so completely — if she can make the impossible possible — then what might each of us be capable of creating with our own lives? Guests leave not with answers, but with a quiet sense of awe, a renewed faith in the creative potential of humanity, and a memory that lingers like the taste of something they cannot quite name.

In a world that increasingly forgets how to look, listen, and touch, Mercedes Noam Kostucki offers a rare gift: a reminder that art — like love, like life — is something we make together.

What to Expect

• A private immersive performance for small groups (4 – 12 participants)

  3 hours of storytelling, visual art, live cooking, and emotional exploration

• Seven Edible Creations, each inspired by a chapter of the artist’s journey

• Interactive participation — conversation and presence are part of the play

• Bring-your-own beverages (no alcohol or drinks are served on-site)

• No menu the edible elements are part of the artistic narrative

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• This is NOT a restaurant. There is no menu. You can’t order food nor drinks.

• This is NOT a walkin art show. All viewings are private and by request only.

• Performances take place in a private residence and art studio in Brussels.

• To request a private viewing, please use the contact form below.