‘Monsieur Mangetout’: The artist who ate an aeroplane
“On the menu today is a bowl of board pins”. You could easily imagine Michel Lotito, the grenoblois performance artist, who was able to eat 900 grams of metal a day, saying something like that. Of all the eccentric forms of performance art out there, this one definitely ranks at the top.
Before you click off because your stomach is squirming, let me explain: Lotito wasn’t actually crazy; he suffered from a very rare mental health condition called Pica, where a person feels the urge to compulsively swallow non-food items.
Lotito started eating strange materials like rubber, wood, and glass at just under ten years old. You can imagine the sheer horror from mothers at his school in the 1950s as he chomped down on a bicycle handle, perhaps even his own, outside the school gates as a light afternoon snack. So, when he started publicly performing these marvellous metallic ‘mukbangs’ as a teenager, he picked up the nickname ‘Monsieur Mangetout’, just like that fibrous green bean you eat in your salad.
The routine was specific and consisted of the following: Lotito would cut up, disassemble, or tear apart the metal or what have you into sizeable bits, akin to an ‘amuse bouche’. Then, he would promptly lubricate his throat with mineral oil to create the perfect slippery slope for his mouthful, and voilà, down it goes with the help of a little water to avoid any discomfort.
Did Lotito really eat a plane?
At this point, when it probably can’t get any worse, and your palms are sweating just as much as mine thinking about this Frenchman’s intestines, bulging with enough metal to make a mini cooper, I’ll reveal the ‘pièce de resistance’ before it’s too late.
Now, the following information has not been confirmed; however, within the lore of metal-eating junkies, it is said that Lotito’s biggest achievement was the slow and steady degustation of a Cessna 150, a two-seat aviation plane.
Among the coffin, the computer and the 15 television sets, this really was the golden ticket, which allegedly took him about two years to complete and a Guinness World Record bronze plaque to win. He ate that too, what a shocker. Whether that really happened or not, it doesn’t exclude the fact that throughout his lifetime, Lotito ate around nine tons of metal. To paint you a picture, that’s enough to make a small bridge.
Lotito claimed to have never had any issues related to his mad diet, but will we ever know the truth? I can only imagine the symphony of sounds coming from his bathroom, but again, he could have easily been able to conceal those tracks too.
