2023, Porto
in collaboration with Aquela Kombucha
This performative dinner was drawn out of my earlier piece ‘Friends Who Ferment’ - a quilted piece made up of fermented textile patches sent to me by friends and friends of friends, pieces of their own travelling ferments.
‘Friends Who Ferment’ was exhibited at Aquela Kombucha factory in Porto in October-November 2023. To mark the opening of the exhibition, the artist Inês Neto dos Santos collaborated with Aquela Kombucha to create a dinner-performance, which unfolded the stories and infinite edible, social and emotional possibilities of the work on show.
Weaving a web of interrelationships, this performance was constructed not only through food, but also through objects, readings, meditations and performative gestures. ‘Friends Who Ferment’ tells us stories from various personal, cultural and historical worlds - inevitably demonstrating that fermentation unfolds ‘culture’ in various meanings: bacterial, social, artistic. In this dinner-performance, we crossed borders with these fermented cloths, travelling with the whole world in our pockets. Together, we opened a portal to a deeper understanding of our existence as multi-species beings. Fermentation extended from the kitchen to the artist's studio; from what we eat to what we smell, touch and wear; from a distant landscape to the asphalt on our streets, travelling through space and time.
