Our Cuisine = Our Stories is a socially engaged project artistically using food ingredients and its associations as a way of knowledge sharing through stories, memories and peoples past. It uses food as a mediator towards understanding our individual stories, enabling a sharing of experiences and knowledge from different cultures to encourage communication within the local community. It began in 2012 as an artist collaboration between Sari T.M. Kivinen and Amal Laala and has consisted of workshops, interventions, a publication, installations a video, a website and blog.
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Think of one ingredient. What's a story or memory you have connected to this food item? When do you first remember tasting it? How did you have it?
gather
face to face exchange taste
texture smell memory
listen share stories
language personal |
NEWS
August 2015 // Sign up for an up-coming workshop!
Our Cuisine = Our Stories is having a workshop on 25th September from 15:00 - 17:00 as part of the Living Spaces Pixelache Festival 2015. There are a limited number of places, you can sign up here and the workshop could take place in your home, office or studio space! June 2015 // Taste exchange at CaisaFEST!
Taste exchange was part of CaisaFEST! over two days 5th & 6th, setting up a place for people to exchange a story or memory regarding food. Thanks to those who wrote and drew about their funny, heartwarming, and delicious food ingredients for a surprise box, experiencing new tastes such as cassava, fennel and mint. May 2015 // Bring your senses along to Taste exchange at CaisaFEST! Come and share a personal story related to food in exchange for a surprise box containing tasty elements of the project. Taste Exchange will be a part of CaisaFEST! in Caisa's lobby on the first floor near Mesopotamia restaurant Friday 5th June 11-14 & Saturday 6th June 11-14 March 2015 // 'Malminkartano tales' a video
A snapshot from the installation in Stoa Cultural Centre's lobby. February 2015 // 'Malminkartano tales' premier screening! The video produced from the Horisontti workshops in Malminkartano last year in Stoa Cultural Centre's lobby from 23.02 - 01.03 as part of satakielikuukausi (month of a hundred languages). Involving personal stories revolving around food from Helsinki residents, spoken in their native language (Arabic, Russian, Telugu (Indian dialect), Finnish, English (& pigeon English). November 2014 // Our Cuisine = Our Stories presents
'3teni l'khobz' (give me the bread) in the exhibition 'Public Space' at Kulte Gallery & editions Rabat, Morocco. 31.10.2014 - 6.12.2014. October 2014 // Workshop at Horisontti New people, tastes, stories and experiences. July 2014 // Exhibition installation & Taste Exchange intervention Our Cuisine = Our Stories had an installation as part of the MAKU-projektin loppunäyttely exhibition at Galleria KONE, Hämeenlinna from the 16.7 - 29.7.2014. As part of the opening there was a taste exchange intervention, where a number of stories were collected along with having great discussions about the project with people. October 2013 // Taste Exchange in Riihimäki's open air market Sari and Amal presented a Taste Exchange as part of the Art Häme festival in Riihimäki's Granitin Aukio. A high-level meeting point in the city center with a market area and stage for events. We were a part of a Sunday market with other locals selling produce from their gardens and farms, homemade cakes and handicrafts. Many people were interested in our set up and what we were doing, but when asked to write a story were not interested in participating. We spoke about the project quite a lot with the market goers and even had the local newspaper interview and photograph one of the public while writing a story.
September 2013 // Taste Exchange at Kauppatori (Helsinki's open air market)
In September Amal and Sari ventured to the open air market in Helsinki (Kauppatori). In exchange for a written story about a food memory participants could take with them a box that contained a special taste test and a written food story. A lot of stories were collected and a lot of people were met. Interestingly many of the other stall holders at Helsinki's market asked Amal and Sari what they are selling and were suspicious when they responded they weren't selling anything.
April - May 2012 // Workshops in Stoa Cultural Centre
Seven meetings took place with women from diverse cultural and occupational backgrounds in Eastern Helsinki. Cross-cultural food experiences were explored, taking the form of a cooking club where the women prepared meals that reflected their culture. We took a journey through each others personal stories and cultures through collective narratives in association to food preparation, migration and Helsinki. |