Love Difference Pastries - the opening

Love Difference Ice-cream and sweets as cultural passports, event curated by Emanuela Baldi, Filippo Fabbrica, Sonja Linke, Irene Leveghi with the collaboration of Chiara Cardinali and Alma Khasawnith. La Spezia, 22nd-24th February 2008.

The sweets have been presented at the event Gelato e Dolci Love Difference come passaporto culturale (Love Difference Ice-cream and sweets as cultural passports), included in the exhibition “Cittadellarte Pistoletto and the Third Paradise”, curated by Bruno Corà at the CAMeC Modern and Contemporary Art Center in La Spezia, on 22, 23, 24 February, 2008. The creators of the recipes also participate in a round table with Michelangelo Pistoletto, the Love Difference staff and invited experts to discuss about the artistic-culinary cooperation as basis of the project.

Love Difference Ice-cream and sweets as cultural passports:
report of the event

The launch of the Love Difference Pastries project took place in La Spezia 22nd>24th February 2008. The three days meeting saw the participants on the first day first preparing the recipes they had proposed and then tasting them. The second and third day were dedicated to a general brainstorming through which the ideas of each were expressed and the general concept of the project started to be developed.

The idea of the project Love Difference Pastries (from now on LDP) was presented to the participants.
Through a shared planning practice the general vision of the project was discussed and the possible ways of developing the project were identified.
The participants found that they shared common and reciprocal intentions and each one will give its personal contribution to the project, which we can call “pilot actions”.
In La Spezia emerged diverse planning guidelines that can be carried out by different pilot actions. One of the main objectives is to valorize differences. By pilot actions we understand that each one of the participants is committed to give its own contribution in order to collect a direct experience (following the “learning by doing” concept) that will be returned to the group. This will help to verify the project’s feasibility.

Three principal needs were identified in order to realize the project and the pilot actions:
1) establish a constant communication between the participants
2) organise a next meeting where the work done will be analyzed
3) create real pastries

Love Difference is at the moment working on maintaining the communication between the participants active; then, following the needs which came out after the brainstorming, we are encouraging the single pilot actions of each artist in his/her own country; along this, we are moving to find new partners for the next meeting/event which we plan to organize within one year from this first one.

Here follows the reports of Saturday and Sunday.

Love Difference Pastries, CAMeC, Saturday 23rd

The second day of the Love Difference Pastries event at the CAMeC in La Spezia included:
- discussing the general idea of the project
- the different conception that people had about the project
- a brainstorming session on the practical things to make the project start to develop.

The first morning session was held by Filippo Fabbrica and dealt with the project itself and the idea of creating a network of pastries. Michelangelo Pistoletto presented this idea of a network, which was later discussed with the others.

For the second morning session the big group was divided in three smaller ones to discuss about:
- the meaning of food for each person and in his/her country
- the dream project of each one
- strong/weak points.

The aim was to talk about the general vision of the project itself.

These were the outcomes:

Feeling and relations
. Starting from the basic concept that “every mother cooks but not every mother is an artist”, it was considered that art normally has a limited audience, but gastronomy is a good mean to connect with people, especially since food normally has no negative perceptions.
. Food has to do with feelings: the person who creates food transmits his/her feelings, feelings that are generated from experiences. People who are sharing food share and generate feelings, therefore food is feelings.
. Food has to do with hospitality: there is a concentric energy movement when people come to a place and share their food, and a centripetal movement through which one goes to other places and comes to know other cultures and gastronomies, and through meeting others one has the possibility to identify him/herself.
. Food is a strong encounter element and has a positive intergenerational aspect, these both encourage the “story telling” of people in general and in particular about what is behind the creation of each sweet.
. The environment of positive energy created within the LDP project can be used to create relationships.

Roots and routes
. The relation between food, culture and identity are nearly unquestionable. Gastronomic preparations are often the expressions of deep cultural roots. Therefore particular gastronomic preparations are the distinctive sign of diverse identities and the best pretext for a dialogue and communication between cultures. Does this mean that food unifies and facilitates a dialogue? In reality alimentary rules are often communication barriers between groups that support an internal locking up, like the binomial halal-haram or the complex rules of eating kosher. Therefore tastes can be referred directly to the roots of belonging to a territory or a group, recalling a common history and feelings.
But every dish is the result of a historic process made by ingredients and techniques coming from somewhere else. The gastronomic preparation should be understood like a historical dynamic process, related to the roots of the people, but interacting between cultures, identifying the other in one self moving from the roots to the routes.

Impact of sweets on human beings and nature
. At the first look, we all know that in some countries sweet is an extra at the end of the meal it could even be considered a luxury.
. A good point is that pastries deal with celebrations, with happiness, and are connected with childhood.
. Even there are places in the world where food is not available, it is about the sustainability of the food itself.
. Not to forget the good attention you pay to your body as a human being, to strengthen and to protect it since we also are what we eat.
. It is also important to have in mind the impact of food on the environment.

Transnational planning space:
. The dream of the LDP is the creation of open spaces, physical and mental ones, both with wide possibilities for cultural and creative exchanges. These public spaces could be cafes/patisseries or just a bag pack with pastries in it.
. To make it not discriminative it should be an international project, not only Mediterranean: creating embassies of differences, of Love Difference, rather than Mediterranean Embassies.
. There is the risk that the idea of nation can strongly condition relationships. People are always aware of the places they come from, they are linked to these places, and they sometimes do not communicate with the others, with the outside world that nevertheless has to be involved.

In the afternoon session 5 groups were formed and each one had to discuss about these five areas: actions, widening of LDP, target, funding/sustainability, communication.

 

Love Difference Pastries, CAMeC, Sunday 24th

Sunday morning the principal concepts that emerged the day before were restored. The need for all the participants to get involved into the project emerged. It was wanted to create real shops and a set of pilot activities that could contribute to the development of the project. Each participant should find new partnerships and work on actions that would spread, sustain and communicate the project. Each one should identity the target in its own regions.

The outcomes:

ACTIONS
Actions are concrete steps for the constitution of a real pastry, place to sell sweet to establish relations between different cultures and create productive collaborations among us.
The project’s objective is to promote intercultural dialogue through art and gastronomy.
The several ideas proposed can be grouped in objects to be produced and sold and cultural events to be organized.

real pastry/ sweets
. Openings of real places like shops (also rooms in private houses) where pastries can be sold and tasted, music played and listened, workshop organized.
Possible themes to be developed:
. Have objects produced with a packaging, which explains the project and the story of the sweets; recipes printed on objects.
. A kit, a case, a box (a gift) with the elements of the recipes, the flavours, smells, tools inside to make the project voyage.
. Create souvenirs as LDP products that widen the perspective of tourists, express a new memory, show the locality with an added value.

Parallel events
. make a presentation, the launch of a “here we are” act.
. Organize cultural events based on the recipes: simultaneous actions that take place in different places (such as cooking groups or schools); periodical events, that create a strong movement and coalition between people.
. Workshops with schools, hospitals, etc.
. exchanges/twin programs between communities which make include visiting the countries involved in the project (also new ones): artists should be moving in events or/and local communities; circles of cooking to share culture and knowledge; handwork and physical presence of people to create dialogue;
. Participation at public events that go along with celebration: real pastry stations with performances for a real audience; parties, birthdays, openings (also in museums), events that bring happiness.

Recipe book that gathers the LDP recipes as well as:
. an encyclopaedia of cakes with interviews made to people (old ones).
. Publishing recipes on magazines and newspapers

Partnerships:
. Pastries could follow local festivals of taste and food, the project could be linked to other public/local events.
. Museum, cafeterias of museums, bookshops, etc. could be places for the cakes where the project enters like a “bug”.
. The recipes could be offered in restaurants, with the story of the project on the menu.
. Cakes could be sold or offered in cinemas before projections of films.

WIDENING

Projects/Ideas for the Love Difference Pastry to grow and reach more people. There can be small and large scale projects, and more general ideas which melt with actions. It is basic to involve new subject such as artists, confectioners or entrepreneurs in the project in order to make the pilot project concrete.

Small scale:
. Talk to individuals to create dialogue on the grassroots level.
. Cooking groups: action- chain-learn-remake-change-share.
. Distribute sweets and info by hand.
. involve contacts from own network

Large scale:
. involve famous person (being media attention) or wealthy one for financial support.
. Create large events in countries to participate in.
. Create locations in cities interested to make the pastries.

Publications:
. Book of recipes: recipes and art; popular distributor, internet/open source, perhaps to use in restaurants, publish in magazines, newspapers, shared in schools.
. Books: write children’s and adult’s stories, pop-up books, present in schools

Movement and exchange:
. Create a nomadic kitchen: travel to large and small events; have it as part of a station, snack bar, meeting space where people can come to share a quick pastry, ideas, etc.; part of a caravan or a truck that travels; a chart for food street.
. Home visits (by persons in their own countries, cross cultural visits).
. Laboratories: in different locations: home, institutions, schools.
. Put the Pastry outside conventional art spaces (hairdressers, hammam) and/or within art space.

Media and video:
. Make a film about this project: distribute professionally, YouTube, on the site, via mobiles.
. Internet: make a website that people can send in recipes to, a facebook, MySpace, etc groups.
. Love Difference Pastry Day (Feb 15).

TARGET

The target indicates the people whom the project is addressed to. People who share common interests in food culture and art. The project aims at a gradual widening of the target to reach all categories of people and widen partnerships as well, the target is therefore generic and depends from the specific developments of the project. We need to define a more specific target, one for each pilot project.

. An archetype could be: “Manolo”, a boy-student, 23 years old, who frequently uses Internet and in the evening meets his friends in a bar or youth clubs. A boy who works inside an artistic collective and wants to know people with a different cultural background.

. Everybody can be interested in art and food, but in particular the target must be addressed in function of what happens in specific areas of the world.

. Education: children who participate at workshops in every part of the world, throughout a variety of school programs.

There is a need for each of the participants of the project to identify in their own region a specific target.

FUNDING/ SUSTAINABILITY

Different prices and actions for different targets. Sell sweets in order to sustain the project. Find money for the start up with the shop. Fundraising actions to gather money to support the project by means of donations, membership fees, partnerships or sustain from institutions interested in the project. Create a Flagshipstore ( a pilot shop that gives visibility to the project and attracts funding)

Two strategies of action that foresee two types of prices to sell the sweets for the two economical levels of the pastry. Actions and prices should be studied in relation to the different interests and economical status of people/customers:

High Price
. Art and food combined: make sweets become pieces of art (collaborating with famous chefs) for a richer target in the countries where food is linked with the business of art.
. Have events, like funding dinners, and selling points in big cities (New York, Sidney, Tokio, Paris)
. Donations from the high classes; sponsorships of companies related to food business, membership fees for customers of the LD pastries shops (they know they sustain a project).

Normal Price
. Selling pastries in real places with low prices for a wide target.
. Sustain the project with the tools and systems that each of us already has: small actions at the very beginning to enlarge the conceptual and productive field, widen the network. Create little budget events in our spaces, small actions to cover the start up expenses and eventually invest the income for bigger ones.

For example:
. Selling a recipe book.
. Fees to participate at cooking teaching groups.
. Artistic events combined with celebrations. Create an agency that organises events, such as birthdays or marriages

Variable prices
Different prices are going to be established regarding the different targets. This means that the price is going to be higher or lower depending on the customer’s purchasing power. This will be combined with the strategies used in High Prices and Normal Prices.

. Common Pot: Symbolic profuse donation can give the possibility to involve participants to the project in first person as a start up. We already have collect 21 euro from our first action in La Spezia.

. Flag ship store (pilot shop), a real LD pastries shop that can be an example for partners and founders. The start up could be activated in already existing places (chocolate shops, cafeterias, restaurants where have the pastries sold).

. The documentation of the project could be sold to TVs or production houses. The project could be joined to TV cooking shows, where artists could be invited to prepare their recipes and be interviewed.

Open question: We want to get funding from everybody. But would we accept funding from a petrol company?

COMMUNICATION

Two levels: inside communication, within the group of LDP and outside communication, to make the project and the local activities be known. Different strategies of connecting people, such as virtual, emotional or traditional communication. It is important to maintain a continuous exchange between the participants therefore internal communication is important.

Internal:
. An annual general meeting organised by Love Difference
. A blog, where everybody can write about the actions and steps he/she is carrying on.
. A collective email account to facilitate the written communication.
. A bimonthly newsletter which informs about the further steps that are being taken in relation to the project
. “Face to face” communication. For example instead of exchanging the recipes via internet it could be done by visiting the other participants countries, presenting the recipes, showing how to cook them and maybe combine this also with a cooking laboratory. This would create communication also with public and could implement the project widening.
. Informal meetings in different cities, for instance in Berlin or Athens (where a good number of participants live at the moment).

External:
Recognition:
. Creation of a logo developed by the “uncoordinated image”, which allows it to be changed according to each project and to each participant but remains the same in the essence.
. Simple and easy understandable language to reach as many people as possible. The project deals a lot with emotions and feelings therefore the language used should reflect this emotional level.
. Design the places of the pastries with communication criteria.
. Flyers

Personal relations:
. Networking. Also individual one: everybody should communicate about LDP to his/her private network.
. Create collaborations with associations that already work in the food field (such as Slow Food Movement, 3rd Market).
. Press: newspapers, women’s magazines, free press. Each one of the participants should communicate within its own resources and contacts

ideas for tools and strategy
. A common press release should be made so that each participant could distribute this material among his/her personal network and the media he/she has access to.
. For instance, publishing a recipe on a women’s magazine would allow the project to enter many houses, since they can be find anywhere
. Design an artistic book (maybe eatable) that could be sold museum bookshops; calendars or notepads with the recipes.
. A “Chinese dessert”: use one of the small sweets (that can be eaten with one bite), wrap it in paper, insert a small paper message in it that says something about the project and intercultural dialogue, sell it in airports, shops, supermarkets.
. Theme parties where to distribute leaflets with the key ideas of the project.
. LDP ring tone.
. A famous person as testimonial.

CONCLUSIONS

During the meeting in La Spezia and the resulting work afterwards the following conclusions were reached:
. the aim of LDP is to promote Intercultural Dialogue by using art and gastronomy
. LDP is a pilot project whose target has to be defined better in relation to the specific situation or region each of the participants lives in.

.Three principal needs were identified in order to realize the project and the pilot actions:
1) establish a constant communication between the participants
2) organise a next meeting where the work done will be analyzed
3) create real pastries

click on the image to watch the gallery

Read the open call

Download the text by Filippo Fabbrica "The taste of differences" in PDF format

Read the article "Love Difference: such a sweet project!" on Babelmed.net (English - French - Arabic)

Read the FAQ about the event in PDF format

Download the press release in PDF format