by Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi

Food glorious food: the obsession of our times, television programmes and recipe books are all subject to the seduction of food. But there are also backlashes, eating disorders, and this is when art and literature become the medium to represent and discuss how an element of our daily routine can be warped and become a troublemaker.

‘M-Eating’ is the title of the exhibition by artist Maïmouna Patrizia Guerresi, that creates a bridge between the arts’ world and food. The show, curated by Asian Bakiri and Giorgia Simoncelli, is set in the beautiful Camhane Art Center in Istanbul, during the Art Biennial and will be on display until November 15th.

The opening, that occurred on September 15th, had as a special guest the exceptional Italian chef Filippo La Mantia who prepared pasta using Byzantine ingredients, so that visitors could experience the connection between art and food also through the senses, i.e. devour a delicious and drooling dish to inebriate the palate.

The event is the outcome of a very important entrepreneurial section that is blossoming very quickly: M’AMA.ART, an Italian creative industry, conceived by Alessia Montani and Anna Caridi, that intends to promote Italy’s exceptional talents, transmitting through an innovative media the country’s vast cultural heritage at a national and international level. M’AMA.ART is extremely sensitive to humanitarian projects, thus the entire M.Eating supported the Alpha Women association, that is actively engaged in female emancipation in developing countries.

An incredibly important focus on the retaliations of the food culture, such as famine, water shortage, irresponsible management of resources, can be found in the volume presented during M.Eating, by journalist Alberto Michelini, ‘Food Nutrition Agriculture: The Challenges of the New Millennium.’ The nonprofit association Fabula in Art, conceived to raise social awareness, of which Alberto Michelini is President and Alessia Montani is Vice-President, has created this publication to unravel the paradoxes of our times on the matter. ‘Food Nutrition Agriculture: The Challenges of the New Millennium’ embraces all perspectives of nutrition, from agrobiodiversity agriculture to eating disorders such as anorexia and obesity, and includes statements from important institutions such as FAO (Food and Agricultural Organisation), WFP (World Food Programme at the United Nations) and WHO (World Health Organisation).

Hence, the “M.Eating” between art, food, literature, humanitarianism and awareness couldn’t have a better bridge than the one connecting Europe and Asia, the Western and the Eastern World: the city of Istanbul.

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