TO KNOW A PLACE
Realised during the MUSAE + S+T+ARTS Food as Medicine residency.
© Google Earth
As I often do, I began with a question, and ended up with many more: what is food without its origin?
Food is never just sustenance. It is bio-political matter, shaped by laws and geography, yet also by stories, identity, and power.
The place of production often dictates what reaches our plates, and in a world where climate shifts reshape geography and technology redefines how food is made, the meaning of “origin” faces profound challenges.
This project is a triptych of investigative films exploring three very different contexts across the globe – each renowned as the birthplace of an iconic food, each entangled in political, cultural, and social dynamics. With minimal organization and an old camcorder to make people comfortable, I traveled from joining fishermen on a remote Japanese coast at 2am, to spending a night in a Scottish B&B where alcohol was forbidden, to uncovering overlooked realities near my hometown.
These films are a temptative to illustrate how food goes beyond mere nourishment – it becomes a geopolitical entity shaping identities, communities, and power structures.
I didn’t find a definitive answer to my initial question. Maybe there isn’t one.
But what I did discover is that food always leads us to unexpected stories – stories that speak volumes about who we are and the world we inhabit. And even if I wasn’t specifically asking for it, we always ended up talking about food.
Food is never just sustenance. It is bio-political matter, shaped by laws and geography, yet also by stories, identity, and power.
The place of production often dictates what reaches our plates, and in a world where climate shifts reshape geography and technology redefines how food is made, the meaning of “origin” faces profound challenges.
This project is a triptych of investigative films exploring three very different contexts across the globe – each renowned as the birthplace of an iconic food, each entangled in political, cultural, and social dynamics. With minimal organization and an old camcorder to make people comfortable, I traveled from joining fishermen on a remote Japanese coast at 2am, to spending a night in a Scottish B&B where alcohol was forbidden, to uncovering overlooked realities near my hometown.
These films are a temptative to illustrate how food goes beyond mere nourishment – it becomes a geopolitical entity shaping identities, communities, and power structures.
I didn’t find a definitive answer to my initial question. Maybe there isn’t one.
But what I did discover is that food always leads us to unexpected stories – stories that speak volumes about who we are and the world we inhabit. And even if I wasn’t specifically asking for it, we always ended up talking about food.
Film: Eleonora Ortolani
Music: Mael Henaff
Special thanks to: Riseria Ferron, Riseria Melotti, Ewan, Hiroko.
With the partecipation of:
Monica Berni
Andrea Battistoni
Teodoro Rava
Lluis Tudela