Ryan Bromley in conversation with Shuddhabrata Sengupta (Raqs Media Collective)
Khoj is currently running the third edition of its Food Residency – a six-week residency that will focus on generating conversations around ‘food’. Apart from the discussions between the artists-in-residence, the residency aims to develop additional conversations around other food-related issues, such as the politics of food and food as an artistic medium.
Since the rise of Ferran Adria’s seminal approach to cuisine, Spain has led the world in conceptual gastronomy, where it continues to challenge our understanding of the edible, transform the institution of the restaurant, and expand the possibilities for the form and meaning of food. While art has always had an ambivalent attitude towards gastronomy, the multisensory material of food has often been utilised by artists. With the conceptual possibilities demonstrated by current practice in contemporary gastronomy, new questions emerge: can gastronomy participate in art? What conditions might apply? What is the distinctive contribution of food as an artistic material?
This talk will begin with a presentation by Ryan Bromley, who will introduce the most progressive directions in contemporary gastronomy and the critical issues that lay at the boundaries between gastronomy, art, and design; including forward-looking research from the disciplines of sensory science, cognitive studies, gastronomy and art.
Following this, a discussion with Shuddhabrata Sengupta will unpack some of these issues and explore the possibilities of gastronomy as art, as well as the curatorial potential that such a material has to offer.
The event at Khoj is being held in collaboration with Instituto Cervantes, New Delhi.