Decolonial (re)mediators
The Situated Kitchen
An (undertranslated) illustrated dictionary for alimentary sovereignty por Marina Monsonís
This book was under translated during the Ultrahospitality translation marathon weekend, which was chill af, as part of the Ultra Dependent Public School. A mesa corrida with very long sobremesas as proximity rituals where informality was the “pedagogy” and many translations took place. Doing things this way was one of the goals we had talked about with Marina: making an event with degrowth principles. Despacito.
On the one hand multiple translations were made by cooking: a situated but conflicted sancocho made from organic and local vegetables and ingredients from Albert Heijn, pestos made with discarded leaves and weeds foraged by friends, Kombucha and Artemisia Absinthe shared by Grace, a Stinging nettle potaje from leftovers in the kitchen and nettles from Clara’s garden, spicy-less aji by Juan Pablo, a dialogue between a cheese from la Garrotxa and Utrecht (maybe), mead from honey from Utrecht and Rotterdam, a gift of Mambe, honey beer and spices gifted by the Ethiopian Restaurant Sunshine next door, sticky willy water!, pears in a reduction of mead by Jeane served in discarded oyster shells from the market. On the other hand, many, many terms of the dictionary were carefully undertranslated by annotating on the margins of the original by many hands (soon scan upload!): sharing personal histories and recipes, writing in multiple languages, drawing new illustrations, hacking the terms, bringing new ones.
Both days we finished in the auditorium for a siesta, to channel and dream together under vibration and sound under the floating light sculpture by Bambi who already prepared us for the session with Artemisa tea foraged from the surroundings of their studio. One of the great accidents was the pleasure to have one of the sessions guided by the voice of Nova Ruth, who sang a prayer to the sea, which she usually sings before embarking on sailing.
We thank everyone who participated, despite the glorious day outside, and everyone and everything that participated in the making and cooking of the food we shared, human and non-human. And of course Marina who came all the way from her home to share her wisdom with us.
Muchas gracias <3
Here is the full pdf ::
