Who would have thought downing a few Pacifico’s with friends could be called art?

The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is hosting an interactive installation titled “Free Beer” by social artwork creator Tom Marioni. This type of art involves people engaging in social interactions.

The piece uses alcohol as a way to connect people, similar to his 1970 exhibit “The Act of Drinking Beer With Friends is the Highest Form of Art,” which was featured in the Oakland Museum.

Most people attending the Marioni exhibit on a recent Thursday did not know there was going to be free beer -- but everyone seemed happy about it.

Viewers of the installation are encouraged to interact with other patrons, and the free Pacificos being handed out by the guest bartender definitely help. A table and chairs are set up for schmoozing with new friends but most of the drinkers chat around the bar.

Marioni is present every Thursday from 3 to 5 p.m. to answer questions about his art or just chat over a Pacifico.

James Harbison, an artist who has also shown pieces at the Yerba Buena Center, came to the installation not for the free beer but to meet Marioni.

“This place [Yerba Buena Center] really makes art accessible,” said Harbison.

Marioni's solo exhibition "The Golden Rectangle" which features conceptual work is also on display at the museum. His work is influenced by Joseph Beuy, a German artist who coined the term "social sculpture." Beuy was known for his performance pieces in the 1960s and thought art could play a wider role in society.

The birch plywood bar, made exclusively for the exhibit, looks similar to an IKEA display piece -- very simple and unobtrusive. Marioni’s new book, “Beer, Art and Philosophy,“ a few flyers promoting the show, and empty beer bottles are the only objects on the bar. The refrigerator is eerily reminiscent of a Centennial Village ice box but with no magnets, or pizza delivery numbers, just a handwritten sign with the name Austin Conkey.

Conkey, who was the guest bartender for the day, is an arts patron who owns many of Marioni's pieces.

“I’ve been interested in Marioni’s art for years,” said Conkey.

Conkey is such a fan of Marioni that at a recent auction he bid so high someone wrote "Are you kidding me?" under his price.

Conkey handed out 62 beers on his guest bartending shift, and all Pacificos- much to the dismay of a woman clutching a Chanel bag, who asked her friend if they served vodka tonics. Previous bartenders have been Bay Area independent curator Diana Fuller and Kenneth Foster, executive director of the Yerba Buena Center. Matt Gonzalez will be guest bartending April 1 at the installation.

“I picked Pacificos because they taste good, I like the label color and the sound the bottle makes when you blow into it is nice,” said Marioni, his slightly curly gray hair poking out from underneath his grey cap.

A self-produced film by Marioni is shown sideways behind the bar. No sound, just images of him smoking a cigar and drinking a beer, followed by seemingly random shots of social scenes at a bar.

“Tom is a practicing Buddhist and social art is kind of like Buddhism,” said Rene de Guzman, visual arts curator for the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Born in Cincinnati in 1937, Marioni attended the Cincinnati Art Academy, and now lives in San Francisco. He has won numerous awards for his conceptual art, including the Guggenheim Memorial Award. In the 1960s and 1970s, Marioni brought experimental art to the forefront of the Bay Area art scene.

“You see all these young artists doing social art, thinking they invented it,” said Guzman, who first met Marioni at a Buddhist art festival.

On Conkey's guest bartending shift visitors of "Free Beer" are a mix of 20-somethings who know little of Marioni and middle-aged men and women who have been fans for years. The eclectic group includes wealthy art patrons, struggling students, and international tourists.

“Beer allows you to meet people,” said former teacher John Ragosta, finishing up his second cold brew of the afternoon. “I came here to see other work he [Marioni] had done. I didn’t know there was going to be free beer, but it makes sense, beer is a stimulant and that’s what art is."

Ragosta brought Ryan Mills to the exhibit. Both men sat around the table and exchanged jokes and drank beer with newfound friend Larry Johnson, a self-described conceptual artist who donned an Indiana Jones-esque fedora.

“This is something you do every day and you don’t even think of it as art,” said Mills, an English teacher from New York.

After an Academy of Art popular culture class fieldtrip had finished touring the Yerba Buena Center, a few of the students stayed behind to enjoy a beer.

“It definitely is about social art -- getting people together,” said Adriana Sparkuhl, an Academy of Art student. “When I have an art show I always have a D.J. -- it’s like the same thing as Marioni’s show. It gets a lot of people involved."

Val Amarson, also an Academy of Art student, took a big swig off his Pacifico.

“It’s like what the artist said, drinking beer with friends is a form of art,” said Amarson.

The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts will be hosting Tom Marioni’s Golden Rectangle exhibit and the “Free Beer” installation through April 4, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. For free beer or to chat and drink with Marioni come to the exhibit on Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and until 7 p.m. the first Thursday of the month. Gallery admission is $6 general and $3 for seniors and students.