Broodthaers made this work using an everyday casserole pot owned by his family, and mussel shells provided by a favourite restaurant. The mussel shells rise up in a column as if flowering out of the pot. Broodthaers explained: ’The bursting out of the mussels from the casserole does not follow the laws of boiling, it follows the laws of artifice and results in the construction
of an abstract form.’ Mussels are a popular dish in Belgium, and Broodthaers intended this work in part to satirise his homeland.