A COLLABORATION WITH

FAENA ART

for Art Basel Miami

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Chance encounters, daily rituals, transgressive interactions.

With my artistic collective Lunafridge we were invited to create new work on the theme of The Last Supper. Combining ritual, astrological and performative aspects, we designed a series of integrated food performances and cultural installations woven into the fabric of Faena Festival and inspired by the major astrological changes impacting the world in 2020.

What is Lunafridge?

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Lunafridge are Madeleine Botet de Lacaze (Astrology for Artists) and James Michael Kinlet Davis, a formatless collective working at the intersection of art, technology, astrology and gastronomy.

We use place, time and culture to develop recipes, rituals and performances that resonate deeply, amplifying the key concepts of the festival and the artworks. We deliver a narrative for each experience exploring the food; how it’s prepared, shared and eaten. The narrative is expressed in several ways: verbally, through performance, communal actions, or at its simplest on menu.

We question what makes us feel alive, what are we made of, where we come from, what are our choices. Every part of every dish has a cultural symbolism, to encourage an awareness of the body as a set of tangible ingredients. Every performative action has a celestial interaction to explore the mind as a set of intangible components.

We build unusual synergies between the land and the sky.

We merge art, technology, astrology and gastronomy into narrative, performative and transformative experiences. Our holistic practice confronts industrial automation with locally foraged chaos, global homogeneity with cultural specificity, embodied habits with spiritual alertness to make the ethereal concrete.

We invite guests to share insights, personal epiphanies and gifts for others, to give meaningfully and receive openly, to participate with a willingness to change and grow together.

To make eating, doing.

Faena Art for Art Basel

The Last Supper

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Faena Festival 2019 explored the relationship between food and religion, abundance and sacrifice, indulgence and abstinence, sex and death and ultimately created a platform for the creation and experience of new contemporary rituals, primarily those that elaborate upon or bridge our shared experiences around food and spirituality.

The Last Supper featured seminal works, new commissions, installations, videos, and performances by Sophia Al-Maria, Janine Antoni, Yael Bartana, Andrea Büttner, Myrlande Constant, Gabriel Chaile, Jim Denevan, Camille Henrot, Zhang Huan, The Propeller Group, Christian Jankowski, Lunafridge, Jumana Manna, Jillian Mayer, Ana Mendieta, Pedro Neves Marques, Emeka Ogboh, Grethell Rasúa, Martha Rosler, Faith Ringgold, Jamilah Sabur, Osías Yanov in collaboration with Lulo Demarco, and Antonia Wright.

We were delighted to create work and share the round table with artist Jim Denevan and chef Francis Mallman.

Artworks presented by us throughout the week:

ACTS OF CREATION, a celestial dinner for Women in the World and Bumble

2020 VISION FEAST, a celestial dinner for the public

THE THRESHOLD, a participatory performance at the beach

FORTUNE COOKIES with astrological messages for Art Basel opening night

ACTS OF CREATION

& 2020 VISION FEAST

Two performative dinners where guests experienced astrologically inspired food, transformative performance and had a personal birth chart reading to gain insight into what the next 12 months have in store.

Astrological Insight

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Inspired by the festival’s theme we decided to work with the most important planetary aspect that was happening a month later - the Saturn & Pluto conjunction on the 12 of January 2020. A potent encounter, one that may be beyond our understanding but that at the same time cannot be ignored.

2020 is the threshold of a tremendous transformation, a huge reality check.

The moments in history when planets farthest away from the Sun come together give us a glimpse of how humanity as a whole is evolving. We are confronted with our collective choices and evolution.

Saturn builds structures; Pluto destroys them.

The last time Saturn and Pluto met in the sign of Capricorn was in 1518 when Spanish colonisation of the Americas was taking place, this being the main reason why we looked at these civilisations for inspiration. Pluto is associated with renewal and rebirth, it represents endings and beginnings. Pluto asks us to transcend, to redeem ourselves, and emerge stronger.

2020 is an opportunity to heal by doing inner work. We face our shadow, personally and collectively, and by doing so we connect with our inner power.

We also made reference to the North Node in Cancer and the South Node in Capricorn. Nodes are mathematical points in the sky and when the Sun and Moon cross these Nodes eclipses happen.

Eclipses shake us to the core and are portals for change and new beginnings.

The South Node in Capricorn relates to what we need to let go of, the old fashioned and outdated structures: governments, corporations, capitalism, heteronormality, patriarchal systems and religious institutions. Our ideas of success, work, responsibility are shifting because we need to integrate the North Node in Cancer. 

The North Node in Cancer is what we need to take in and learn. Ruled by the Moon, it relates to our sense of home, belonging, protection of children, the rise of women and the power that lays in vulnerability. A celebration of our bleeding, motherhood and the love of our mother Earth.

It's about finding home in our bodies… not the 'home' of what the patriarchy taught us but the home of our being as humans.

Narrative Gastronomy

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Inspired by The Last Supper, we explored patriarchy and the end of misogyny through an astrological lens.

Five hundred years ago, when Saturn and Pluto last met in Capricon, the Americas were colonised. When the Spanish arrived they banned a grain called amaranth which was a staple food of the Aztec people. Amaranth's divine sacramental quality posed a threat to the Eucharist which would undermine the conquistadors' forced conversion of indigenous people to Christianity. 

This is why we welcomed our guests with orchid and amaranth, a fertile reclamation of love transcending barbarism.

In our research into the food of matriarchal societies and civilisations, we repeatedly saw a focus on grains, pulses, fruit and vegetables, with very little meat. We found that capitalism and patriarchal structures were strongly associated with meat production and consumption. With that in mind - alongside the broader cultural movement to eat less meat - we had meat in only one dish, and although delicious it is by design not the star of the show. This means we can mostly serve the same dishes to all parts of the table, as vegans and vegetarians will be very well catered for, rather than isolate them as having a special requirement. We want to help normalise eating less meat and bring inclusion to the gathering. Taking care of our mother Earth and our bodies is linked with the rise of women. 

MENU

for ACTS OF CREATION

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Divine Sacrament

Orchid, agave and amaranth | Ancient healing

Orchids, long associated with love, beauty and fertility, are paired with amaranth, an Aztec grain banned by the Spanish catholic church exactly 500 years ago, because Amaranth’s divine sacramental quality posed an existential threat to the Eucharist. The dish was a single orchid flower glazed in agave syrup dipped in popped amaranth, served as a canapé.

Celestial Koliva

Fruits, grain, nut, seed | Ritual memory

Fruits, seed, nuts and grains are shared in a ceremonial ritual of remembrance of that which is lost, but we can still embody, learn and be inspired by.

Sourdough with wild yeast butter | Raw abundance

A simple celebration of wild yeast, that which surrounds us at all times and can be harnessed for delicious food in a healthy ecosystem, or feared as harmful bacteria, a choice we are free to make and act upon.

Nodes of the Moon

Saffron and barberry rice | Universal celebration

Ancient companions throughout the Middle East and India, universally eaten at times of celebration and unity.

Lamb and sea | Coastal compassion

Lamb is perhaps the most compassionately farmed animal, served with sea vegetables, regenerative and medical superfoods to honour this coastal threshold.

Fractal Romanesco with pickles | Metaphor for intersectionality

Fractals stand as a metaphor for intersectionality, so this cruciferous vegetable with its Fibonacci spirals lets us explore ideas of race, gender, wealth and other forms of inequalities and how they intersect.

Pink radicchio, fig & pomegranate salad | Blood & fertility

A highly symbolic blood salad magnifying symbolism around sexuality, fertility, earth, body, temptation, perseverance and more.

Goddess Awakens

Birch sap, juniper & hibiscus granita | Inner potential

Birch, a goddess tree, is paired with juniper’s purification qualities and hibiscus’ beauty and perfection.

Human Kindness

Goat milk & orange blossom panna cotta | Matriarchal Blessing

Goat, the symbol of Capricorn, the most commonly-farmed animal companion in matriarchal societies, is given scented notes to create a milk of human-kindness dish. Chamomile syrup - 'energy in adversity' - is adorned with shards of Costa Rican chocolate from the female led Bribri society. We also prepared a vegan version of this dish with oat milk.

THE THRESHOLD

A participatory performance

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Saturday, is Saturn Day

“What are your boundaries?”

Saturn represents how we create our reality. Boundaries, limits, rules, regulations. The father. Fears and defences. Time. Becoming an authority. Our inner authority. Vocation and work. Harvest. Skin, bones and the ageing process. Feelings of self worth, responsibility, self-empowerment, authoritativeness and independence.

Our approach towards reality.

As a group we walked together in single file on the narrow threshold between the ocean and the sand. We send messages, questions and insights back and forth along the line, listening but not responding.

Groups of 12 walk in single file on the threshold of land and sea.

FORTUNE COOKIES

A food installation

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An astrological-inspired twist on classic fortune cookies, each containing a message of relevant astrological insight or wisdom.

We created 40 messages appearing in 10.000 Fortune Cookies available at Faena throughout Art Basel.

A glimpse:

• Uranus takes you out of your comfort zone to discover that what you were afraid of is actually your potential.

• Saturn doesn’t ask you to give up your dreams, only to make them real.

• Aries teaches us that good warriors choose their battles wisely. Know when not to engage, and still win the war.

WHO WE ARE

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“A ritual is the enactment of a myth. And, by participating in the ritual, you are participating in the myth. And since myth is a projection of the depth wisdom of the psyche, by participating in a ritual, participating in the myth, you are being, as it were, put in accord with that wisdom, which is the wisdom that is inherent within you.”

- Joseph Campbell