Digestions

Digestions is a podcast created and hosted by Laura Torres, Yazel Parra and Alexandra Laudo, members of the Mòniques 2023-2024 Gastronomy Guild. It is conceived as a space for meeting and dialogue with agents who, from different fields of action (such as thought, art, community practices or catering), work and reflect on the political, social, economic, cultural and philosophical implications of the production and consumption of food, cooking and the act of eating.

Three episodes available online through XRCB, IVOOX and Spotify.

Episode 1: WHITE SUGAR with Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz

The Bolivian-German philosopher, curator and writer Max Hinderer Cruz, co-director of the Independent Studies Programme at MACBA during the 2023-24 academic year, reflects on the colonial sugar industry, its impact on industrialisation and on the definition of the modern European project, as well as on the current "corporate colonialism", among many other issues related to the production, importation and consumption of this sweet substance.

Bonus tracks of the episode:

- Sidney W. Mintz, Dulzura y poder. El lugar del azúcar en la historia moderna, Madrid, Siglo veintiuno editores, 1996. 

- Cantos de Pilon.

- Making-of of Kara Walker's monumental sculpture, A Subtlety or the Marvelous Sugar Baby (2014), produced and presented by Creative Time at the installations of the old Domino sugar factory. (Brookyn, New York).

Episode 2: CORN. From sacred food to industrial product. With Natalia Carminati

In the second episode of Digestions we talk to Natalia Carminati, visual artist, researcher and resident at the Centre of arts Santa Mònica within the Gastronomy Guild during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 editions of Mòniques. Carminati's artistic practice is based on long processes of situated theoretical research, and is formalised in multisensorial devices, such as video, performance, video installation, sound art or painting. The thematic axes that articulate their work are decolonisation, sustainability and food. In the conversation that the current members of the Mòniques Gastronomy Guild had with Carminati, the artist spoke to us about his research into hegemonic agri-food models and food industrialisation policies, taking corn as a case study and the impact that its industrial cultivation has had on food sovereignty.

Bonus tracks of the episode:

* Academic article on nixtamalisation::
bit.ly/La-nixtamalizacion-y-el-valor-nutritivo-del-maiz

* Web fo the artist Natalia Carminati:
nataliacarminati.com

* Instagram of the art collective las Jamaiconas:
www.instagram.com/las.jamaiconas

Episode 3: RURAL LIFE, with Vanesa Freixa

Vanesa Freixa lives in a century-old ‘borda’ at an altitude of 1,400 m, in a small village in Pallars Sobirà. She is a mother, has a small flock of sheep and a vegetable garden, and was director of the Shepherds' School between 2009 and 2016. From an activist position, and through writing, documentary filmmaking and artistic creation, Freixa promotes the dissemination and generation of critical thought on ruralism. We talked to her about the value of the peasantry and of a slow and conscious life, linked to the land and to the knowledge of the processes of food production. We also talked about ‘rural bullying’, the need to ruralise cities and food sovereignty, and we addressed the debate on whether or not to eat meat. In an intense, emotional and highly inspiring talk, Freixa reminds us, quoting John Berger, that knowledge of rurality is linked to the safeguarding of life.

Bonus tracks of the episode:

Vanesa Freixa, Ruralisme. La lluita per una vida millor, Barcelona, Ara Llibres, 2023.
https://www.arallibres.cat/cataleg/ruralisme/

Ruralisme o barbàrie. Ungüent de Pericó. Talk between Marina Monsonís and Vanesa Freixa. Workshop by Marina Monsonís. MACBA's kitchen. 
https://www.macba.cat/it/obra/ahis06379-ruralisme-o-barbarie-unguent-de-perico-conversa-entre-marina-monsonis-i-vanesa-freixa----la-cuina-taller-a-carrec-de-marina-monsonis-enregistrament-audiovisual-activitat/

Saó. Alt Pirineu Festival of Art, Nature and Thought
https://www.aplecsao.cat/programa-2023/