February
Food Stories I (Il papà del gnoco), 2023, collage
Food Stories is an action that explores traditional dishes through food preparation, conversation, and storytelling. This approach highlights the power of cooking as a journey through time. The project examines how we live together and how cultural stories are preserved through dishes and their ingredients, creating an “ethical kitchen”. By experiencing food preparation, participants connect with these narratives and engage in a cycle of cultural exchange.
About the artist
Irene Rainer is an Italian artist enrolled on the MA programe at the Institute Art Gender Nature HGK FHNW in Basel. For a very long time she has been working with elements of traditional culture, such as making food. In daily actions like feeding ourselves and others she finds a source of inspiration to reflect on rituals, on common myths, on festivals and all the bonds that keep a community together.
Through performances, but also film and complex installations where she uses photographic images and collages, she composes a site where we can reflect on the place we have given to those essential elements in our lives. Retracing histories and placing simple elements like a potato at the center of her work – as the sun – she awakens a new curiosity in us and forces us to see our surroundings under a totally different light.
Food stories I (Il papà del gnoco), 2023, collage by Irene Rainer
Irene Rainer, the Italian artist, created the artwork for February.
