In-conversation with Inês Neto dos Santos
All things food, fermentation, materiality and more
Following my previous article on Studio Olafur Eliasson Kitchen and sustainability around food, I decided to follow it up with an inspiring multidisciplinary artist who I also got the chance to collaborate with in the past. This week’s substack will include a conversation between artist Inês Neto dos Santos and me, focusing on her broader interdisciplinary practice, fermentation, and the online course she co-leads called Food Cosmogonies.
HK: When we first met, it was for the finissage event of the group exhibition Adventitious Encounters Open Space had organised at Whiteley’s Shopping Centre (now transformed into luxury flats in the gentrified area of Queensway) back in 2018. That’s when I first came across your practice of responding to the space and the exhibition concept through fermentation. I believe you had just graduated from RCA back then; for those who don’t know about your practice, can you explain and expand on how you integrated fermentation and conviviality in your body of work?
INS: Yes, that was such a fun project! I was beginning my experiments with fermentation then. Since then, fermentation has integrated my work both as a practical preservation process and a symbolic gateway through which we can understand the world. Fermenting can teach us the importance of collaboration, community, and collective gestures and offer us an expanded view of our surroundings beyond ourselves. I work with fermentation not only as a way to extend the life of ingredients but also to propose multispecies ways of thinking - a consideration for the fact that we, as humans, are made and surrounded by thousands of unseen microorganisms, which are responsible not only for things like our digestion but the overall functioning of our bodies. These microorganisms exist everywhere - flying on dust particles all around us, on the skins of fruits, inside our guts, mouths and skin… With this in mind, conviviality and the dinner table become the central point in which we may understand ourselves as multitudes! How we are connected to all life forms can undoubtedly be understood more fully in the act of eating - and consequently considering where our food comes from, how it was grown, by whom, and in what part of the world.
HK: The Tender Touches exhibition at AMP Gallery in Peckham, London, was a lot about conviviality crossing boundaries between art, hospitality and design, and I know we had many references from Gordon Matta Clark to Gertrude Stein. It was quite an ambitious 6-week project that included a series of events we curated in May - June 2019. Can you explain your role in running the cafe and how we collaborated together?
INS: It was super ambitious, wasn’t it?! Tender Touches spoke about an expanded art practice experience, questioning what an artist can do and be. This was an exhibition existing as a fully functioning café - with recognisable artworks hanging on the walls, yes; maybe less recognisable artworks being used by diners to sit, eat, drink and wipe their mouths; and an overall critical view of food as a signifier of our place in the world, as well as a means of perception. I cooked daily in the café, making seasonal food from conversations with the participating artists, food producers, and growers. We worked closely to develop a concept that challenged traditional exhibition-making and invited a wider audience into the gallery space - by almost pretending not to be a gallery! Our mutual interest in food (and love for it!) and its relationship to art and artists drove us forward to working together. Tender Touches was such a unique project - I miss it often!
INS: How was this for you in the broader context of your curatorial practice? What have you brought forward from it?
HK: I think it was one of the most ambitious projects I collaboratively worked on as it encapsulated not only transforming an exhibition space into a functioning cafe but also curating the dynamic programme and elements of hospitality around it. I enjoyed the whole process, from visiting artists' studios to preparing the promotional visual images from your delicious recipes to formulating the exhibition concept together. I enjoyed the conversations with the passerby and the tactile element of the exhibition/cafe space. There were also books we were influenced by there for the visitors to pick up, and a cup of complimentary coffee was offered by our local sponsor Old Spike Roastery. I often dream of a Tender Touches museum pop-up. Who knows, maybe it still might come true. I do miss it too!
HK: And then there was the Tender Touches book we crowdfunded for right at the beginning of the pandemic… Did you see the book as an extension of the project or an independent project on its own?
INS: Yes, absolutely an extension - an opening up of lots of elements less visible during the exhibition, and also the chance to reflect on our joint project. The book offers recipes and special commissions of some participating artists, images and the translation of the lively, convivial environment we created into book form. I see the book as a portal through which readers can move into the space of Tender Touches. Everything from the colour palette to the choice of paper, printing and wording evokes the original project while allowing room for imagination.
INS: What was your view of the book, and how the idea of publishing sits within Open Space?
HK: There was a dedicated project on our website called Writing Space. Four writers with multidisciplinary backgrounds – from artists to curators and poets, were commissioned to contribute texts that were then published. Dedicated leaflets or informative texts/pamphlets were available in all Open Space projects and exhibitions. Still, the Tender Touches book was the most ambitious and extensive one- hence the Kickstarter campaign we started. I loved the book's result, even though the process and editing took a little more than expected. From your delicious recipes to Pietro Garrone’s slick publication design to the engaging and vibrant archival material we had from Tania Dolvers to the beautiful illustrations of Peach Doble, the book came together organically. I also loved our conversations, processes and all the artists’ contributions to the publication.
HK: Since the pandemic, you have been working and living between London and Brussels; how has this influenced your practice?
INS: The primary influence has been working more closely with materials and thinking about the role of objects in my practice. Experiencing the pandemic and being unable to cook for others or create convivial and performance work allowed me to look closely around myself and discover the potential of food materials to tell stories and communicate ideas. Moving my base to Brussels has allowed me to have my own studio space rather than just working from home. This has provoked many changes in how I see and relate to my work, which I am still figuring out now!
HK: Can you tell me more about the “Food & Art: Alternative M.A.” you have been co-organising with artist and friend Nora Silva through Food Cosmogonies? Why Cosmogonies, and how did the course develop over time?
INS: The Food & Art Alternative M.A. brings together everything Nora and I wished we had experienced in art school but didn’t. We’ve been developing Food Cosmogonies since 2020, initially as a short course delivered online via the Institute for Postnatural Studies and then independently as a 30-week, entire academic year course. Food Cosmogonies and the upcoming M.A. propose reconceptualising the world through food and understanding food as foundational in any world-building exercise. We are now accepting applications for the Alternative M.A., until 31 March, with the course starting in October 2023!
HK: You have been to several residencies, including Villa Lena in Italy, The Radical Residency V at Unit1 Gallery Workshop, London and the latest EVA International in Ireland. How have these residencies shaped your research and practice?
INS: Residencies have become an essential part of my work. Working with food means, to me, inevitably working in a relationship to place. Being immersed in different environments and developing relationships with various people and landscapes outside my familiar environment becomes central in developing my practice - I love residencies as they offer me a fresh perspective on topics I’ve been familiar with (or thought I was!).
HK: What are you working on at the moment? Anything exciting?
INS: Right now, I am enjoying spending time in my studio and developing my work around travelling ferments - wearable, sculptural pieces which draw on stories of migrants travelling with fermented starters in their pockets. I am putting some collaborations in place within the context of this research to present an extension soon in Portugal, hopefully! Apart from that, I am also focusing on launching our Food & Art Alternative M.A., the most ambitious course Nora Silva and I have ever run, but potentially the most engaging (and most fun!). I really can’t wait for it to start!
Thank you for reading, for those who have subscribed for a paid membership, you’ll be unlocking an additional recipe by Inês, unseen photos of the Tender Touches exhibition.
For more information on Inês, click here to view her website and follow her on Instagram.