Dear Claudia and Nano
I am glad to know that you feel at home in Santiago. As I read on your website you’re interested in identity, local or global, in your work. It is an aspect that also important for my work. Identity and migration are linked to each other. For example Italian secondos (second generation immigrants – they are born in Switzerland and their parents have emigrated formerly) are called Italians in Switzerland and Swiss in Italia. Immigrants are a constant topic in the media of Switzerland. Some Swiss feel threatened and think that if one minarett is built in Switzerland, the country is going to be islamic very soon. How is the situation in Chile. If there are immgrants, where do they come from? Where do Chilean emigrate to?
Food has also a lot of identitygiving aspects (man ist, was man isst – you are, what you eat) or (was der Bauer nicht kennt, frisst er nicht – what the farmer doesn’t know, he won’t eat): let’s take the potato for example. It has its origins in South America (Chile, Peru, Bolivia). It came to Europe around 1500. In Switzerland the Rösti, made from potatoes is now a national dish. Two months ago I attended a dinner made by the artist Arpad Dobriban (www.arpad-dobriban.de) with the topic: the endless migration to the west – it was about aliment-itinarys. What are national recipees of Chile?
The following is a picture of a work of Fischli/Weiss, it’s called “Der Unfall” (the accident) made with cervelat, a tipical Swiss sausage (made with brasilian cowgut).
Bon Appétit!
Natalie
