Performance
Part of the Queer Transmisions event with Strangelove collective
Broadcasted live from the Bosbar by WE ARE VARIOUS radio platform
2023
Photos by Simon Van Looveren
On another revisitation of the book “The 5 tortillas my grandma gave birth to (and the many more yet to come)”, I explore what it means to have the culinary power in your hands to be independent.
As the second part of the book already implies and subtly explains, I believe tortilla to be an agent for community, and developing your own practice around it means to be able to decide who you share it with, creating your own commonality and domestic spheres.
The performance consisted on reading my father’s recipe of tortilla -gathered on the book- out loud, precisely sharing in that moment a piece of domestic knowledge with the audience.
After reading the recipe, I read a text I crafted myself:
“Tortilla is rarely cooked for one eater, as its core essence is to be shared, and so making tortilla for the first time is a step on the way of becoming a functional adult.
Learning to make tortilla is on itself a ritual towards maturity; it denotes the ability of feeding others than oneself, and therefore proves to be ready for the construction of one’s own community and care network.
Cooking, as all domestic work, is a survival skill that not only makes you independent but also confident in yourself and your abilities, which makes it a relevant asset for one to be able to choose who to get surrounded by. Independence, and so, sharing your life with people by choice and not dependence, is the key to community.
If knowledge is power, domestic knowledge is the power to craft yourself your own home, an emancipating tool if needed.”
You can listen to the performance clicking the following play symbol, from the WAV website, on minute 14:30.
Food and politics, performance
Antwerpen