NEW YORK—“Pasta, however grateful to the palate, is an obsolete food,” Futurist leader Filippo Marinetti declared in 1931. “Its nutritive qualities are deceptive; it induces skepticism, sloth, and pessimism.” Despite generating considerable debate at the time, Marinetti, of course, lost his war against the Italian staple he claimed to despite photographic evidence that suggested his real feelings about the food were a bit more conflicted.

Inspired by Marinetti’s polemic, Dutch artist Marije Vogelzang has announced plans for an interactive art project that would have seriously rankled the Italian radical: a massive installation she calls Pasta Sauna. On Nov. 4–6, participants will be invited to sit in a sauna at the Cooper Union heated by boiling pasta and be “as lazy and un-energetic as they want.” After relaxing, they will even be able to feast on a free lunch, which they can pass off as a political protest: The avowedly militaristic Marinetti felt that the food did not properly nourish soldiers — “Spaghetti is no food for fighters!”

Vogelzang’s project — part of the Will Cotton performance biennial — is a bizarre culinary-art crossover, but it is hardly the only one occurring in coming weeks. Will Cotton, who is alternately loved and reviled for his lush paintings of sugary confections and semi-clothed women, has announced plans to open a bakery on three Sundays in November (the 8th, 15th, and 22nd) at design store Partners & Spade (P&S), in NoHo.

Cotton has spent years honing his baking techniques — even consulting with pastry chefs in France — to produce cakes, pies, macaroons, and tarts to serve as models in his paintings. All of those treats (and more) will be for sale as part of his project, which will also feature items from guest chefs. Ashley Butler of P&S wouldn’t comment on who those guests will be but did reveal that the project came about as a result of a friendship among Cotton and owners Andy Spade and Anthony Sperduti. “Will, Andy, and Anthony had spoken for a long time about working together in some way,” she said. “This bakery idea was perfect.”

Cotton’s business venture recalls Damien Hirst’s role as investor in and interior designer for Pharmacy restaurant in London in 1997, and Gordon Matta-Clark’s restaurant Food in the dilapidated SoHo of the 1970s. (Lucky Jeans occupies the site today.) There, the enterprise involved performances like Alive (1972) — in which Matta-Clark served live shrimp hidden within hardboiled eggs — as well as ordinary meals and weekly turns by guest chefs, including Donald Judd, Robert Rauschenberg, and Keith Sonnier. Artists could go to Food to have a meal, work, or network, fostering the sort of community that is central to some of today’s food-art projects, which could explain some of their appeal, especially given the unsettled nature of today’s art market and aesthetic debates. The prospect of making art provides a nice excuse to share a comforting meal with people in similarly difficult straits.

Catalan designer Martí Guixé seems to be creating just such a communal atmosphere to combat that anxiety in his Performa piece, Mealing, on Nov. 14, also at Cooper Union. During a three-hour meal of numerous “microsnacks,” guests will perform various motions with one another while eating. Unlike at Food, though, interactions in Guixé’s piece will be choreographed, the act of socializing with strangers turned into a ritualistic performance.

Jennifer Rubell’s Creation, which opens Performa on Friday night, promises to provide a more freewheeling happening, inviting participants to feast on towering mountains of barbecued ribs, 2,000 pounds of peanuts, and tanks filled with wine at large banquet tables. The meat arrives courtesy of New York chef Adam Perry Lang, while the chocolate sculptures that will serve as dessert have been commissioned from local chocolatier Jacques Torres. Contemporary art has progressed from Rirkrit Tiravanija’s ramshackle Thai cooking events through Edwardo Sarabia’s homemade tequila nights to Rubell’s epic meal, the meticulous sourcing of which mirrors America’s (and particularly New York’s) growing obsession with artisanal, sophisticated, and oversized food experiences. As former Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni put it, “More and more people seem to insist on deliciousness, and more and more seem to have readily articulated opinions to go along with that demand.”