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Presented at the Art Book Fair in New York, ‘Slices of Life’ (BRUNO Edition) is making its round in London this coming March. Notting Hill will be its headquarter with an exhibition at The Muse Gallery in Portobello Rd featuring a selection of portraits by Ottavia Castellina extracted from the volume. The show opening on the 3rd of March will host a range of events inspired by the book, addressing elements of conviviality, food tradition and diversity. Some of the events will happen within the gallery space, involving Notting Hill community and neighborhood; others will take place in other locations in London.
‘Slices of Life’ is an unusual cookbook, that consists of life stories and photo portraits where each recipe becomes a blind date with someone you don’t really know. The idea came to Elia Romanelli, anthropologist and filmmaker, who spent four months strolling around London meeting and interviewing people. Piero Vereni, anthropologist and lecturer of cultural anthropology at Tor Vergata University in Rome, transformed then the recorded interviews into short stories, while photographer Ottavia Castellina went to each participant’s house to take a portrait of the person surrounded by his/her personal belongings. The book is published by an independent publishing house based in Venice, BRUNO.
The recipe suggestions come from a diversity of cultures. Strangers, usually just glimpsed, here become trusted maîtres d’hôtel who give you the opportunity to look deeper into their lives. ‘The book also offers itself up as an informal guide to London, where the city and its hustle and bustle stand in sharp relief to people’s stories. A guide where a suburban backstreet may be as meaningful as Big Ben in the quest to understand the city and where the real difference lies in the people we meet and the stories they tell of this vast metropolis teeming with human life. It is a guide book that invites you to take wrong turnings and a cookbook that says it is okay to accept recipes from strangers.’ says Elia Romanelli.
In the series of photographs presented at The Muse Gallery, people are portrayed in their homes surrounded by their “stuff” – the things that accompanied them through their lives and represent them best. Ottavia Castellina’s portraits are inspired by 15th century Flemish art paintings, perceiving the domestic as symbolic ground. However, here staged objects represent more than social status and official roles; they trigger self-reflection and embody people’s experiences, memories, emotions and dreams. Each person is depicted as part of his or her own private ‘Wunderkammer’, made up of personal belongings of their choice. Selected objects were staged around their owners to create a sort of ‘portable domestic altar’.
‘With the current ‘food craze’ in the Western world, everybody seems to want either to learn or to teach something about food.’ says Piero Vereni ‘We hope that the people who were interviewed for this project, with their common but unique stories and their ‘homemade’ recipes, will stimulate the reader’s interest in the secret ingredient no professional or celebrity chef can offer to his or her devotees: the sweet and sour taste of life’.
Program of events:
Inside the gallery:
The Muse at 269
269 Portobello Rd
W11 1LR London
Thu – Sun 12.00 – 18.00
3rd March 2016 – 20th March 2016
‘Portraits from Slices of Life’
photography exhibition
by Ottavia Castellina
3rd March 2016 18.30 – 21.00
Private view + Book launch + performance:
‘Anthromixology: the act of understanding anthropology through cocktails’
by Gareth Clayton, an ‘anthropologist-barman’ creating a range of cocktails inspired by the book recipes, flavors and characters. Ingredients will come from different areas in London and people will be invited to taste the cocktails during the performance.
12th March 2016
14.00
‘Preserving stories’, jam making & storytelling event
Fine art mix media artist Federica Dalla Vecchia will involve the public in a jam making demonstration and storytelling session with the sharing and collection of anecdotes from the public related to the act of preserving food.
16.00
‘Slices of Notting Hill’
Qualified tour guide Claudia Colia will lead an alternative walk in the streets of Notting Hill exploring its culture, history and food variety.
Sunday 20th March - 13.00
‘Sunday Feast’
Lunch with the local community in Notting Hill. People in the borough are invited to take part to a feast in the gallery bringing a dish of their choice, sharing their food and stories. The event will be accompanied by music by Ilaria Mare’.
Outside the gallery:
5th March 2016 - 13.30
Potluck lunch with the local community in Lambeth + live music by Ilaria Mare', Tsivi Sharett, Ulises Diaz, Fabrizio Brusca, Lori Secanska, Alex Paton, Dunja Botic, Semra Bulut, Belle Greenwood mixing sonorities from different parts of the world at I’klectik Lab.
6th March 2016 – 19.30
book club dinner + music jam session by Tsivi Sharett at Bonnington Café
Elia Romanelli
Elia has a degree in anthropology from La Sapienza University in Rome and a specialisation in visual anthropology from Turin University. He currently works mainly as a filmmaker. He has directed several documentaries, both independently and for television, primarily focusing on historical and biographical issues. These include “Who creates Venice. Portraits of artists”, “Lën. Thoughts and stories of three Gardena artists”, “From Charlie Brown to Valentina. The story of a revolution made of pencil strokes”. ‘Life stories’ is a theme that he has been studying and working on for many years.
Piero Vereni
Piero lectures in cultural anthropology at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and teaches “Urban and Global Rome” at Trinity College - Rome Campus. He gained a PhD in cultural anthropology in 1998 doing field- work among Greek Macedonians. He worked as a research assistant at Queen’s University, Belfast from 1998 to 1999 where he did fieldwork on the land boundary between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. He is currently working on an ethnography of globalisation in Rome and economic anthropology issues related to foreign immigration in Rome. He has published some thirty articles and authored and edited several volumes on subjects ranging from ethnic identity in Macedonia, the role of television in shaping collective identities and the political use of the past.
Ottavia Castellina
Ottavia is a fine art photographer based between Turin and London. She graduated in Art History from the Art, Music and Theatre University (DAMS) in Turin and in 2008 she completed an MA in Photography at the London College of Communication. Over the years her work has been internationally exhibited and acquired by public and private collectors. In 2012 Ottavia was awarded the RESÒ Artist in Residency at KHOJ International Artists Association in New Delhi and she received an arts grant from Guy’s and St Thomas Hospital in London. (www.ottaviacastellina.com)
The Muse at 269, 269 Portobello Rd, W11 1LR London (http://www.themuseat269.com)
I’klectik Lab, 20 Carlisle Lane, SE1 7LG London (http://www.iklectikartlab.com)
Bonnington Café, 11 Vauxhall Grove, SW8 1TD London
