A virtual conference and corporeal hub on fermenting indigestible cultural metaphors.
A project by Anna Bromley and Michael Fesca in conversation with EXPOSED.
With Atmaja Anan, Franco Berardi “Bifo”, Serge Attukwei Clottey, Collettivo Geologika, Copy & Waste/ English Theatre Berlin, Giorgio de Finis/ Andrea Facchi, Stefan Demming, dilettantin produktionsbüro, Journal Rappé, Journal Gbayé, Valentina Karga, Kuiperdomingos Projects, Marco Philopat, Fabrizio Vatieri & Laura Lecce and others. August 5/6, 2015, Fondazione Forma per la Fotografia, Milan Realized with the kind support of C/O Milan and of the Berlin Senate Cultural Affairs Department. |
Fermentations are an important technology, contributing to the production of highvalue food and beverages. Its metabolic processes are typically able to start autonomously, only requiring naturally occurring microbial “contaminations” to consume raw materials. These customary aroma, flavor, texture and nutritionenhancing techniques allow foods to stay edible longer and present the base of community dishes from many geographical regions.
Fermentation manifests a transcultural “alchemy” of human food culture. While fermention processes are an important technology in biotechnological industries (i.e. bulk chemicals, and pharmaceuticals), they can also be regarded as sensitive equilibria, which demand time and attention. Paradoxically, the effect of fermentations is that the food product is less hospitable to other microorganisms. But the wanted “contamination” is hard to control and for long, fermentation industries seek techniques that can detect process failures and costly delays. It is this inherent anarchic quality, the project is interested in. In the fashion of EXPO`s pavilion concepts, the fermentation pavillion aims to connect to the pre-fairground notion of the pavilion as an airy garden space enabling informal encounters and conversations driven by desires to be halfconnected to the “dirty” garden patches and halfconnected to the tamed galante conduite . In reverse, the microorganisms from the garden were able to pass onto the pavillion tables to metabolize the cultivated dish into a further (sometimes unwanted) cultivation. Contemplating on fermentation as a resistant, secretly poetic and anarchic chemistry that inhabits its host in a hacking or DIYmanner, the fermentation pavillion attempts to be a twonight hub for commenting and “digesting” EXPO2015`s patronizing motto "Feeding the Planet". Finding its incorporation at Fondazione Forma, the pavillion will present live skypeconversations, performances, and screened video works involving artists, theorists and activists with different geographical backgrounds. |