Open Kitchen

A small yet very intriguing collateral exhibition of the Biennale, just opened in Venice, as an intermediate step in a wider research project on kitchen design, food and urban agriculture.

As the 14^th International Exhibition of the Venice Biennale’s official venues of the Giardini and Arsenale closed their doors a few days ago, a small yet very intriguing collateral exhibition just opened at Spiazzi, an alternative exhibition space and laboratory, situated a few steps away from the Porta dei Leoni, the historical entrance gate to the Venice’s Arsenale.

“Open Kitchen. Agricoltura urbana, cucina collettiva e la cucina delle meraviglie”

“Open Kitchen – Urban Agriculture, Collective Kitchen and the kitchen of wonder” on display until 20 December, shows the results of research and products realized during an undergrad design studio held at Università di San Marino and IUAV di Venezia, on the themes of food education, horticulture, and collective and green kitchen. It may be said to bridge the distance that separates “Fundamentals” from “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”, the 2015 Expo, to open in Milan this spring.

The exhibition shown at Spiazzi is an intermediate step in a wider applied and interdisciplinary research project on kitchen design, food and urban agriculture, to which have collaborated the two above mentioned institutions as well as the Università degli Studi di Macerata and the Lube Industries from Treia. At the center of the display are twelve design solutions, or prototypes, all declinations of a same 60x60x90 cm module.

Inspired by projects such as the Minikitchen (the small mono bloc wheeled kitchen designed in 1963 by Joe Colombo) the Abitacolo (the habitable and multifunctional bed-module designed by Bruno Munari in 1979) or the Posto dei giochi (the ten foot long multipurpose corrugated pressboard sheet working as a divider, a fortress, and an adaptable playroom and designed by Enzo Mari in 1967) the “the kitchens of wonder” are dedicated exclusively to children and are design both for private use as well as collective kitchens in schools or other public spaces. Each of these prototypes tells a different story, a different way of teaching, trough playing, the entire cycle of food, from the seed to harvest, conservation, consumption and even recycling. Some of the prototypes have been built by Lube Industries with an ecological material called Naturalia, a High-pressure decorative laminate product by Arpa Industriale.

Open Kitchen, as a collective kitchen, is an experimentation on the possibilities of establishing new relations between generations, traditions and customs. It investigates principles of food conservation, drying, cooking, washing, cleaning, security and lighting, in a sustainable way, redesigning private spaces dedicated to food, but also public ones situated in schools, hostels, or campsites.

As a research project, “Open Kitchen” was recently presented at the Triennale in Milan in occasion of the conference “Progettare cibo nelle fattorie urbane del futuro, una nuova dimensione della città”. In the near future, parts of the exhibition “the kitchen of wonders” curated by Riccardo Varini, Francesco Adornato and Federica Ciavattini, with Bruno Winter e Massimo Barbierato shall be presented at San Marino, Munich and in the Marches, and will have a presence at Expo 2015, within the French pavilion and as part of a conference organized in September by the Italian Ordine degli Agronomi.

The project “Open Kitchen – Urban agriculture and the kitchen of wonder” seems very topical. Slow food and urban ecology are at the center of attention in Italy and elsewhere. But its particularity resides in the attentions it dedicates to children: kids are the main users of this project in both a macro – connecting with an entire social space of interrelations between social classes, regions, nations and cultures – and micro perspective – directly sending users back to the domestic and familiar cell.

until 20 December 2014
Open Kitchen – Urban agriculture and the kitchen of wonder
Spiazzi, Venice

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