MACA×1000小食 | Elementary in the Plate

2023.12.16 Saturday

Location

706 N. 1st St.798 Art Zone, 2 Jiuxianqiao Rd., Chaoyang, Beijing

In a two-day food workshop co-presented by MACA and 1000小食, participants were invited to activate their unique elemental perceptions and "read" Elemental Constellations with detective-like curiosity.

Guest Co-Planner: 1000小食 (Xiao Yang, Yan Mo)

Eating is one of the activities in daily human behavior that is most closely related to the elements. Unlike the rational mind's abstract understanding of the elements, when eating, we experience the entangled relationship between the physical body and the elements, and in doing so, we recognize the tension-filled difference and coexistence between the "self" and "nature" as the "other". In this workshop, which feels like a detective novel, we'll start with "lǔ wèi" (Chinese marinated flavor). "lǔ wèi" multilayered aroma often diffuses in the traditional family kitchen of Chinese households, embodying the fragrance many associate with "home". However, for those with limited cooking experience, "lǔ wèi" exists in ambivalence and mystery, like a "blind box" filled with a dozen unnamed spices — sometimes, we have even lost track of the exact spices used. The workshop will guide participants through identifying, categorizing, and rearranging each element, ultimately illuminating and reviving everyone's memories of "lǔ wèi". And this is just a warm-up. In the next chapters, you will realize what Holmes said: Deduction is an art.

The Macalline Center of Art (MACA) is a non-profit art institution located in the 798 Art District of Beijing and officially inaugurated its space on January 15, 2022. Occupying a two-story building with a total area of 900 square meters, MACA unites artists, curators, and other art and cultural practitioners from around the world. Through its diverse, ongoing, and collaborative approaches, the Center establishes a new site on the contemporary art scene. Guided by the “work of artists” and backed by interdisciplinary research, the Center aims to bring together a community passionate about art and devoted to the “contemporary” moment so as to respond proactively to our rapidly evolving times.