Critical Feedback_Anna Maggi

I would like to talk about the workshop The taste of Beirut: like salt and bread on the Green Line (2008) designed by Marije Vogelzang, a Dutch Eating Designer. Marije worked with Kamal Mouzawak, a Lebanese chef who founded in 2004 the first farmers market in Beirut. The concept of the workshop attempted to eliminate the cultural and religious differences between the Lebanese people, using food as a common ground. First she made a questionnaire, investigating which was the food they related to peacetime and secondly the one they related to wartime. Most of the participants answered bread. Marije decided to make one big piece of dough mixed with parsley juice, a typical relish in Lebanese culture. Each person made a bowl and wrote inside a happy thought using sugar. With all these different shaped bowls they made a line passing through the market creating a Green Line. People were invited to eat the bowls as if eating the Green Line, a symbol of the Lebanese’s war division. In this project she gives evidence of her particular understanding in the field. In fact she approached this concept without falling into clichés.

When I started my research this project was one of my main inspiration.
I was particularly interested in the way this project embraced communication, cultural issue, social issue and methodology. Furthermore, Marije used food as medium to communicate a social message; she utilised it as a symbol rather then nourishment.
During this period I have tried to understand why I have been so attracted by this particular project compared to others eating design workshops.

I have analyzed this project for months and every time I understood something new. At the beginning of my research, I was interested in communicating issues related to food through eating performances. For example, doing a workshop to raise awareness about food diseases or about the importance of sharing food. But these findings didn’t satisfy me and I started to research in a different direction.

Finally I understood that for me the nitty-gritty is to find other ways of communicating.
I strongly believe that nowadays people received too many messages and it’s difficult to reach their attention. This is why I think that active communication/performance or experience design is a possible way to solve this concern. Furthermore I believe that food it’s a strong communication medium but I’m not concerned only in food-related issues!
Analyzing again The taste of Beirut, it was clear to me that Marije used food to communicate social issue like war and racial discrimination. The answer has always been there!

Now I understood that my challenge is to communicate social issue in alternative ways (food could be one medium) and to use performance to engage people.

Here you can see my last project “Special J” in which I tried to put into practice my ideas.

And this is the link to the project of Marije.