Exhibitions

The Food & Design event at the Salone del Mobile.Milano2024

Text by
Marianna Guernieri
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salonemilano, l'integrale

L'Integrale - All You Have Ever Wanted to Know About Food Design in Six Performances

During EuroCucina 2024, an immersive event curated by six authoritative food magazines will be inaugurated with artists, designers and chefs to discover the present and future of the ingredients that nature offers us

“All You Have Ever Wanted to Know About Food Design in Six Performances” is the name of the event that will be presented at the center of the EuroCucina 2024 pavilions, a large immersive space and a fluid stage with presentations, reflections, performances, exhibitions and tasting experiences to be held during the days of the 62nd edition, from 16 to 21 April. The guests will be six international food magazines that, together with artists, designers and chefs, will celebrate food as a symbol and cultural phenomenon, a source of excitement and wonder and an example of resilience and adaptability through as many immersive installations. Food as mythology, philosophy, culture, spirituality, folklore but also experiments in the field of food, industry, production and consumption cycles and waste management, to open new paths that will make a difference to the future of humanity on this planet. The performances will be available every day from 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., while the talks will take place at the Food Design Arena at 2.30 p.m. in Pavilions 2 and 4. Here are the six projects involved. 

L’Integrale: “Eating the sea” 

L’Integrale is an Italian magazine of gastronomic culture that uses food to tell the story of contemporary life. Headed by Diletta Sereni, it will be joined by the visual artist Luca Trevisani, who will curate the presentation, and the chef and writer Tommaso Melilli, who will manage the tasting experience. “We will try to imagine what we will eat in the sea of the future: a sea that, according to current prospects, could have no fish at all, or very low stocks of fish. And then we will eat something else that the sea offers,” says Diletta Sereni. “We want to tell the story of a possible future, to explore fears, to recount the beauty and intelligence of some marine forms that at present people consider marginal.” A dystopian vision, then? “It’s a sad sea of defeat, civilization has lost, but when you lose something, you also realize what you hadn’t looked at enough before. In this dystopia there are margins of beauty and Luca and Tommaso will show them to us with their arts.” Luca Trevisani conducts a multidisciplinary artistic research into algae by entwining aesthetics, ecology and nutrition, and within his installation Tommaso Melilli will try to extract the flavors of the sea in three potion-broths recounting as many stories.  

Family Style: “Objects of Affection” 

The U.S. magazine Family Style, which will present its first issue, will tell about How Food Can Be “Objects of Affection” with Sophia Roe, chef, food editor and winner of the James Beard Award and Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta, founders of the design studio DRIFT in Amsterdam. The project stems from a menu created specially for the magazine by the famous Argentine chef Francis Mallmann. For the occasion, Sophia Roe will present a food design with a surreal aesthetic, at the same time exploring the ancestral relationship that binds us to food and its preparation, through her very personal vision, while studio Drift will develop an original work for the limited edition cover of that issue of Family Style, in the wake of their latest research project into materialism,  which will be presented in the Food Design Arena.

The Preserve Journal: “Digesting Degrowth” 

The Preserve Journal is an independent Austrian print magazine dedicated to the exploration of a more sustainable, resilient, and responsible food culture. A platform for activist and transformative storytelling, founded by Michelle Skelsgaard Sørensen. It will collaborate with Belgian artist Grace Gloria Denis whose work combines agricultural research with interactive installation, incorporating edible material, sound, and image to propose a convivial and comestible approach to critical inquiry. Their installation “Digesting Degrowth — Care, Commons, Frugal Abundance, and Conviviality” relates to food and agriculture. “The literature in the field presents a fascinating list of ‘post-growth agri-food system principles’ which we find greatly inspirational and nourishing to work with,” Michelle Skelsgaard Sørensen explains. “Based on this body of radical literature, we wish to create a project that explores the concept of Degrowth and four selected principles, namely those of Care, Commons, Frugal Abundance, and Conviviality. The wish is to create a performative and edible experience that explores and expresses the essence and possibilities of these degrowth principles.” This work will result in a full-day performance, structured in different chapters throughout the day, dedicated to one principle at a time, and each of these chapters will take the shape of a participatory meal that embodies the specific principles.  

Linseed Journal: “A humble gathering” 

Founded by Louise Long, Linseed Journal is a British magazine that weaves threads through time and place. Each print edition takes its lead from a single ingredient with enduring cultural significance, like the olive or the apple: a curiosity at the confluence of the human and natural worlds. At EuroCucina it will partner with Francesca Sarti, founder of design studio Arabeschi di Latte, with the exhibition “A humble gathering”. “Our concept of the humble is about treasuring the everyday and appreciating the ordinary, whether living in abundance or scarcity. The word human comes from the Latin humilis, meaning from earth,” Louise Long explains. “The humble gathering is collection of natural ingredients and materials, recipes, stories, and cultural curiosities. Together, offering an urgent manifesto for our times: a bid for greater resourcefulness, communality and imagination”, she continues. The exhibition will be in two parts: THE HUMBLE TABLE comprises an exhibition of found and made objects, stories, and printed materials drawing on ideas from mythology, philosophy, spirituality, and folklore. The second half, THE HUMBLE KITCHEN, invites visitors to take part in simple acts of ‘cooking’ for the natural world: the making of nourishing gifts for plant-life, birdlife and bodies of waters.   

Magazine F: “Food Documentary Magazine” 

“Food Documentary Magazine. Origin - Transformation – Consumption” is the exhibition title that the Korean Magazine F will present at EuroCucina together with American food artist Bobby Cortez, formerly private chef to Paul Allen, Eddie Murphy, Antonio Banderas, Melanie Griffith and Lady Gaga, who creates grandiose pop-up installations for lunches and dinners, blending design, architecture, art, photography and cuisine. “Each issue of Magazine F is a “360-degree” perspective on an ingredient or food. It covers the entire lifecycle of how it exists and interacts with people, both individually and as cultures,” Christopher Mascis, CEO Lift Marketing Group, explains. “A deeper, understanding of ingredients can enhance the readers’ relationship with food, and elevate their experience of their lives. Food is not just what’s on our plate, what we bring home from the grocery or what we pull from the ground. It’s a shared cultural creation that provides economic and cultural sustenance, from its origins to its consumption, leaving a rich trail of economic value, personal and cultural meaning, as well as the very real nutritional benefits that keep us healthy and alive.” Each of the three themes presented will give visitors the experience that helps them contemplate aspects of ingredients that are part of everyone in the world’s daily lives.