⸺ In a flash and back
In our second project week, we spontaneously decided to visit Madrid for a very unique experience.
Belén had invited us to a dinner organized by Fondo Supper Club, a female collective that monthly hosts dinner experiences connecting art and food, each time collaborating with avant-garde artists and collectives. Belén is part of the creative production at Fondo.
“Synergetic Banquet – Laboratory for a planetary Cuisine”. This edition inspired by BLACK ALMANAC, a platform for investigative and speculative design, focussing on a guide to a viable future food system.
⸺ Itinerary
Lisboa Airport, 8 AM: Discovering that the car rental was in fact not at the airport.
9 hours later – enjoying the “best empanadas in town” (according to Google)
Madrid, Matadero, 5:37 PM: Arriving later than expected, but very pleased.
Attending the discussion and reflection round “Cooking with Information: Art, Science and the transformation of the Food System“ * – that was the discussion round we attended, leaving us inspired, reflecting.
7:30 PM: The time had come to experience the event we had travelled 9 hours to attend.
The English language fails me to explain the tastes, textures and mouth sensations we were to experience. Inspired in BLACK ALMANAC’s speculative perspective on future food systems, every dish paired with the “fermented grapes” surprised in taste combination, as well as in the form of presentation. The immersion was as much sensorial as it was visual.
⸺ Next day
Our Madrid experience didn’t end up there, however.
The following day, we visited Madrid Food Innovation Hub, where lovely Denize showed us around the kitchen, a space open to any kind of culinary experiments, accessible to everyone who has an idea for free! The Hub is also there to invite people living in the area to become curious about food innovation.
By lunch time we were at the “Centre for Approaching the Rural”, a Centre by Campo Adentro. Campo Adentro represents a social and cultural project connecting sustainable rural practices in northern Spain with the urban environment, as well as art. The project’s goal is to promote social change towards local and sustainable collaborations. Lively talks over delicious lunch with Bego and others involved in the project, gave us a broader perspective on the initiatives and actions Campo Adentro involves, such as a school for shepherd education, the variety of craft workshops hosted at the Centre, or the small public library it hosts.
Many questions led to many more questions and reflections. After such eventful 24 hours in Madrid, our group split into home-travellers and I’m-spontaneously-staying-in-Madrid-stayers.
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