Art
Edible Synchronies
Landscape relationships through colors.
Gabriela Aquije
Dive route with Cleto Cusipaucar and Jan Brack. Edible Synchronicities (Cocinas Alterinas, 2023). Photo by Mayar El Bakry.
Hello reader!
We are Cocinas Alterinas, Gabriela Aquije (PE/CH) and Mayar El Bakry (EG/CH), a collective of critical design based in Switzerland (operating between 2019 and 2024). In our practice, we investigate kitchens as spaces of care and creativity, making visible the connections between communities and environments. As designers, we embrace the complexity of food practices, translating them into different mediation formats to engage with the people we research.
Our collective practice was nourished by our individual explorations, and based on previous relationships in the Sacred Valley of Cusco, we developed a project called Edible Synchronicities. Thanks to the generous support of Pro Helvetia South America, the artistic residency MATER welcomed us during the last dry season (southern winter) in August 2023 to investigate the connections between humans and the earth through food practices.
Or, more precisely:
What are the hidden relationships between humans and the earth that can be investigated through agricultural, gathering, and cooking practices?
This was a challenging research question, but we were excited to intertwine our creative practices with the dynamics of the Andean landscape.
Thus, during four weeks of residency, we immersed ourselves in the dry season of the Andes and learned from the skilled members and representatives of the research laboratories of MATER (distillation, fermentation, and color workshop), the kitchen and service of the MIL restaurant, an expanded network of artisans, producers, and the local farming communities of Mullak’as Misminay and K’acllaraccay.
In our practices, we consider kitchens as potential workshops, both in the spatial and mediation sense — spaces for creation, reflection, and critical thinking. The different areas of MATER/MIL and their kitchens offered us a context to experiment at various scales, from markets to tables, and approach the landscapes and ecosystems of diverse altitudes.
Day by day, we followed the guidance of each expert and their practices: we listened, filmed, drew, climbed hills (apus), gathered, harvested, discussed, took notes, descended hills (apus), recorded, boiled, dyed, photographed, filtered, dried again, took notes again, walked, peeled, mixed, cooked, served, ate, shared, gave thanks (among ourselves and to the earth) and a long etcetera. We learned by doing in each practice to explore, meditate, and (re)generate relationships along the research center, the restaurant, and the heights of the landscape.
First color extraction experiments with the Warmis. Edible Synchronicities (Cocinas Alterinas, 2023). Video by Mayar El Bakry.
Each team and space taught us a lesson:
The MIL chacra, the MATER team, and the members of the communities Mullak’as Misminay and K’acllaraccay helped us understand the important dynamics between community work and reciprocity with Pachamama (mother earth).
The liquid laboratory guided us through the biodiversity of medicinal plants, finding renewed value in the intersection of ancestral and contemporary processes.
The Warmis workshop taught us about textiles and natural dyes, their varieties, mixtures, and cycles in relation to the plants and products available in the dry season.
The kitchen and service team of MIL made visible the relationships between gastronomic processes and traditional cooking methods, maintaining respect and innovation.
Several experiments arose while we paid attention and exercised these lessons, amid antitype tests and botanical graphic installations. Finally, we translated three weeks of practical work and dialogues inside and outside the kitchens into two prototypes: a map based on the MATER table, the mediation tool for ingredients, and a color calendar based on three extraction processes from the mentioned areas.
MATER Table, after being rearranged. Edible Synchronicities (Cocinas Alterinas, 2023). Photo by Mayar El Bakry.
As the prototypes evolved during the residency, we conducted around 20 interviews with different members of the MATER, MIL, and CENTRAL network, as well as local experts and beloved mentors we met during previous fieldwork.
We wove the conversation with them around 5 questions that revolved around work, land, the seasons (time and weather), and flavor:
What motivated you to work as (job description)? Tell us an anecdote/memory of your first steps.
How has your relationship with the territory and communities (of producers and others) changed due to your work as (description)?
What is the role of climate and the seasons in your work?
Have you noticed any significant change in the environment in which you work since you started?
What flavor transports you and where does it take you?
These interviews added a personal layer to the scope of the research, but they also portrayed and connected different joys and challenges throughout the territories we visited. While Mayar explored audiovisual and photographic representations, Gabriela delved into oral storytelling and drawing. Among the various things our creative processes revealed, the theme of climate change was very present.
As the residency progressed, we noticed that from different altitudes, stories, and perspectives, people shared how climate change has affected and has been experienced in their food and artisanal practices. The climate emergency is a daily reality for people who have a close relationship with the land, and it became visible through these interviews, showing another side of collective resistance and creativity in the dry season.
Drawn interview with Solischa. Edible Synchronicities (Cocinas Alterinas, 2023). Drawing by Gabriela Aquije.
To complement the experience with lived knowledge, we also relied on the guidance of four mentors from the region, Quechua and non-Quechua Indigenous. One of them, Soledad Secca (or Solischa, in her media channels), a proud Quechua woman and visual anthropologist from Occopata (Cusco), supported us during the second week of the residency in MATER.
Thanks to Soledad's experience and her fluency in quechua runasimi (her mother tongue), we were able to have a careful translated dialogue with the communities of Mullak’as Misminay and K’acllaraccay. Moreover, we valued her initiative to translate our invitation for the final dinner from Spanish, intuitively creating an audio recording in quechua runasimi to ensure clarity and accessibility of the invitation.
At the end of the residency, we organized “From ayni to the table,” a collective meal and a gathering to give thanks for all the exchanges and generous lessons that we implemented throughout the residency. As a way to create a bridge between the altitudes and establish a meeting space for all communities, we planned this dinner by the Urubamba River in Ollantaytambo. For this, we relied on two more mentors, Johanna Sarmiento and Antonio Sorrentino, who lead the family team of ALQA Museum of Andean Art and Culture.
While preparing this dinner, we collaborated with two other Quechua Indigenous masters: Mama Eusebia Silvia Tapia (Maras - Ollantaytambo) and Isaac Riquelme (Huilloc - Ollantaytambo), in ancestral cooking and fermentation methods. With Mama Eusebia, we prepared a two-and-a-half-day chicha (fermented corn drink), relying on her to teach us not only the process but also the meaning of hospitality with chicha, the ancestral fermented corn drink. With Papa Isaac, we anticipated the construction of the Pachamanca or earth oven, which served as a great space and moment of teaching during the collective meal.
From ayni to the table, collective dinner at the ALQA museum. Edible Synchronicities (Cocinas Alterinas, 2023). Video by Belami Cárdenas.
This gathering was a celebration for and with the dry season. It was a joyful chaos that linked steel and earth kitchens. We devised recipes, cooked, ate, and cleaned collectively. That is what ayni means, "today for you, tomorrow for me." Since Inca times, reciprocity has been the currency to foster economies and relationships. This dinner honored that principle. And, as we learned on Pachamama Day, August 1, in our first week of residency: sharing in community is the best way to honor the gifts of the earth.
In this residency, we broadened our perspective on what a food practice is, thanks to the resistance, warmth, and creativity of the people living in close relationship with the extreme Andean landscape and its cycles of abundance and scarcity. After these experiences, we felt profoundly honored and connected with the stories we had the pleasure to hear and the memories we could share.
It was an immersive learning experience.
Thank you very much!
Alterinas Kitchens
We wish to share the prototypes of the MATER TABLE and the COLOR MAP as manuals to convey our experimentation process and foster curiosity and recreation of each prototype in the next season. Additionally, we are adding the drawing of an interview and some quotes from one of our collaborators, who generously guided us through each prototype.
MATER Table
The MATER TABLE is located within the main research area and is central to the immersion route. The table displays all ingredients and natural elements that are part of the recipes and processes of the MIL restaurant. The table functions as a composed exhibition of roots, barks, seeds, leaves, flowers, fruits, and tubers collected by the MATER research team and guided by various members of the communities of Mullak’as Misminay and K’acllaraccay, as well as by the exploration routes and partner producers of the Cusco cloud forest and the Amazon. These elements come from diverse landscapes and altitudes, ranging from 0/850 to 5000 m.a.s.l, and constantly change according to the availability of the season. The proposed starting level can vary from 800 m.a.s.l for a collection and MIL products or from 0 m.a.s.l for CENTRAL products.
To understand this piece and optimize the mediation potential of the table, we were in conversation with Jan Brack, Manuel Contreras, Cleto Cusipaucar, and Agnes Rivera, among other members of the MATER research team and neighboring communities.
MATER TABLE MAP, graph of axes and areas. Edible Synchronicities (Cocinas Alterinas, 2023). Graph by Cocinas Alterinas.
MATER Table organized by altitude and humidity levels, in conversation with Jan Brack and Manuel Contreras. Edible Synchronicities (Alterinas Kitchens, 2023). Photo by Mayar El Bakry.
Description of the prototype:
The exhibition was reorganized into two axes, altitude and humidity, and three main zones of the landscape: tropical forest, high-altitude valley, and Andean mountain range. Then, each botanical element was placed at the intersection of these three values, except for corn, which was located at the base of the table organized by altitude.
The objective was to provide a coherent structure in which each element revealed the characteristics of its landscape of origin. This allowed both the research team and the guests to read the table as a map of the ingredients of the restaurant and their connected values. This prototype also serves as a calendar. It shows the diversity of the seasons, allowing the team to update and change the elements on the table according to the season.
Work in process of the MATER table with Jan Brack and Manuel Contreras. Edible Synchronicities (Alterinas Kitchens, 2023). Photo by Mayar El Bakry.
Usage:
Define the axes of altitude and humidity along the length and width of the table.
Divide the table's expanse into three main areas according to its ecosystem (and optionally two more): Amazon forest (rainforest and cloud forest), sacred valley (steppe highland), and Andean mountain range.
For the two previous steps, a thread, tape, or any marker can be used to keep track of the axes and areas.
Place each element/ingredient on the surface of the table according to its corresponding altitude, humidity, and ecosystem values of the landscape.
Replace and repeat this process with each change of season.
Cleto in botanical gathering. Edible Synchronicities (Cocinas Alterinas, 2023). Photo by Mayar El Bakry.
Cleto Cusipaucar: "It's important to remember the plants of the place, their names and their value. Everything we know, we share orally".
Jan Brack and his favorite spot next to the Tobacco plant. Edible Synchronicities (Cocinas Alterinas, 2023). Photo by Mayar El Bakry.
Jan Brack: "Every person is an agent of change wherever they are (...) Gastronomy unites us in understanding nature".
Drawn interview of Jan Brack. Edible Synchronicities (Alterinas Kitchens, 2023). Drawing by Gabriela Aquije Zegarra.
COLOR MAP
The color map emerged after the experience with the MATER TABLE prototype and through different experiments and dialogues with the Warmis color workshop, the liquid laboratory, and the MIL kitchen. By mapping the different elements of the table's cartography, we noticed that the botanical elements were a common thread throughout the ecosystems of the landscape. In response to our research question, this prototype visualizes the different botanicals/ingredients from the dry season and their uses in three different areas/kitchens through their color extraction processes.
COLOR MAP, graph of landscape axes and double areas. Edible Synchronicities (Cocinas Alterinas, 2023). Graph by Cocinas Alterinas.
Color extraction in the liquid laboratory. Edible Synchronicities (Cocinas Alterinas, 2023). Video by Mayar El Bakry.
Description of the prototype:
To develop the prototype, we decided to use only materials available in the valley area and already used in the MATER/MIL spaces. Thus, we collected most of the color samples using tocuyo fabric (similar to canvas) and filtered the sediments with kitchen paper, storing them in glass jars from the fermentation laboratory.
The prototype was developed on a rectangular tocuyo fabric, divided into two sections with a common altitude axis, like the MATER table. On one side, the color sediment samples were organized along the three spaces and extraction processes: traditional color extraction (k’oncha, cooking in quechua runasimi), distillation and fermentation processes, and dyeing experiments in the kitchen. On the other side, the dye samples responded to different parts of the botanicals: seeds, roots, barks, fruits, flowers, and leaves.
This color map combined this information and proposed a visual composition that relates the altitudes of the landscape with the processes and textures of the dry season. To create this piece, we were in dialogue with the Warmis of K’acllaraccay (Mama Purificación Aguilar, Mama Yolanda Atau, Mama Inés Challco, Mama Ceferina, Mama Modesta Saloma, Mama Leonarda Meza, Mama Inocencia Challco), Manuel Contreras, Jean Pierre Diaz, Jan Brack, Juan Jose Bueno Alvarez, Aida Miranda, Luis Valderrama, Andrea Faour, and Verónica Gamarra.
Materials:
Tocuyo fabric (as much as available)
Washable kitchen paper (white) - better if it's water-resistant
Transparent glass jars of about 50 ml (approx.) - preferably wide-mouth
Elastic bands or thread
Markers and labels
Spoon or spatula
Dyeing food with huacatay in the MIL kitchen. Edible Synchronicities (Cocinas Alterinas, 2023). Video by Mayar El Bakry.
Usage:
Sediment samples
Place the smaller square transparent jars (washed and dried) at the bottom (subdividing x3) of kitchen paper. Place this paper over the mouth of the jar and gently press it to create a concave surface (space for filtration) and then secure it with the elastic band.
For a week, take as many samples (around 50-100 ml) as possible from the Warmis workshop, the liquid laboratory, and the MIL kitchen, focusing on the botanicals. Label each sample with a code from the area it comes from and a number that refers to the name of the botanical; specifying which part was used (root, flower, stem, leaves) and whether it was dry or freshly gathered.
To take the sample, take a measuring cup (or any cup) and slowly pour through the cloth into the jar. Be careful not to overflow, as depending on the part of the botanical and the process, the sediment/pulp will be thicker. If it is too thick to continue with the filtration, replace the paper cloth with a new one and continue the process.
For the kitchen and the liquid laboratory, take note of the process and additional materials added to the botanical.
For the Warmis workshop, take samples with a fixer (mordant) and without it, and note the boiling time of the extraction process. Try to take a sample at 30 minutes, 60 minutes, and at the end of the dyeing process —that's where the most sediment will be at the bottom.
After all the dyed liquid passes through the cloth, hang it for about 15 to 20 minutes to release the last drop of water. Then, remove the cloth and carefully spread it out, avoiding tearing it or spilling the sediment; secure the four corners of the cloth with a weight to prevent it from shrinking.
Label the bottle with the corresponding liquid color and place a small label in the upper corner of the sediment cloth with the area code and number of the liquid sample.
Color samples for the mapping prototype. Edible Synchronicities (Cocinas Alterinas, 2023). Photo by Gabriela Aquije Zegarra.
Color samples and sediments. Edible Synchronicities (Cocinas Alterinas, 2023). Photo by Gabriela Aquije Zegarra.
Color samples
Cut longitudinal strips of tocuyo fabric approximately 50 cm x 20 cm (approx.), one for each color sample, then place one in each jar and let them sit overnight.
Let them dry and then press them for a full day with something heavy (a book or another object) so that the tocuyo doesn't crumple.
Mark the altitudes of the ingredients; if there are many, choose the average altitude.
Map
Review the MATER table and find the botanicals from which the color samples were taken. Note their altitude.
Cut a rectangular piece of tocuyo fabric, with a length that is double or triple the width measurement. E.g., 80 x 140 cm or 160 cm. Along the width, mark the lowest and highest altitude of the identified botanicals, and then subdivide every 500 m (suggested). Then, divide the length of the tocuyo in two, marking the three areas on one side and the parts of the botanicals on the other (see graph below).
Suggestion: The final length will depend on how many samples have been collected, so it is recommended to first make a mock-up of this arrangement with a pencil before cutting the tocuyo to avoid material waste.
Following the altitude axis, the area, and the part of the botanical, organize the samples. Pin them, trying to leave space to read the information on each strip.
COLOR MAP, first prototype. Edible Synchronicities (Cocinas Alterinas, 2023). Photo by Mayar El Bakry.
Mama Inocencia Challco, in her workshop. Edible Synchronicities (Cocinas Alterinas, 2023). Photo by Mayar El Bakry.
Mama Inocencia Chalco - Warmis Workshop
"To respect the ancestral warmi technique of natural dyes, we have different varieties of gathering that change from the rainy season to the dry season".
Manuel Contreras, in the liquid laboratory. Edible Synchronicities (Cocinas Alterinas, 2023). Photo by Mayar El Bakry.
Manuel Contreras - MATER Liquid Laboratory
"At greater height, both people and plants have greater strength (...) what we do is a labor that respects the origin".
