FOGO LENTO

It was from the desire to investigate the layers of stories of day-to-day culinary habits that this show came about. There is a dinner to be prepared, there is an Italian woman and a Portuguese man, there is a table and there are concepts such as identity or tradition that need to be peeled and cooked over a low heat to discover their meaning.

​

Heraclitus said that it is next to the “home fire”, where the family prepares meals, that the gods live. R.Barthes said that food is everywhere and at all times a social act, loaded with social, cultural and symbolic meanings. In the making of a meal, we are able to read the layers of history of a family, a group, a nation. We read the multiple contaminations and encounters that made us what we are.

We travel between the intimate and the universal to understand the layers of history that everyday foods carry. We focus on the transformations that culinary habits have undergone over the centuries and how this can affect our way of living and seeing each other.
In this work, a historical research on the origin of food intersects with the experience of meeting cooks and lovers of the cuisine of Porto and Minho. A performative work emerged, in which the preparation of a meal is an opportunity to reflect on the dynamics of power at a macro and micro level, which the kitchen hides.

​

Mediation practices and community participation:

​

The project was developed thanks to a close relationship with the community from the Portuguese region: Minho. During the creation, the team shared meals with different families from the area, creating intimacy and exchanging dishes and tradition around the table.
The show itself has a participatory character and invites the spectators to help the performers in the preparation of a meal that is eaten at the end by public and performers.

Link vídeo teaser