With(in): three women, three communities and food rituals

La Biennale Architettura 2021 - Venice, Italy

field gallery installation gallery trailer soundtrack book team

How do food and mealtime rituals reveal larger cultural contexts? 'With(in)' presents an immersive window into the worlds of three women in three informal settlements: Eva in Guadalajara, Mexico; Gihan in Cairo, Egypt; and MamaG in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Through visual storytelling, we experience activities from the mundane to the surreal, from the deeply meaningful to the inconsequential. We visit neighborhoods on cliffs and the tianguis markets of Guadalajara, the high-rise brick slums and bustling women-led kitchens of Cairo, and the tiny courtyard homes and fruit stalls along train tracks in Port Harcourt. We learn from the physical and social infrastructures that facilitate and impair the acts of these women in procuring food, cooking, and eating with their families.

As rapid urbanization unfolds at an extreme pace, we need to look at informal settlements to better understand the future and create new spatial contracts. One woman’s journey can be both individual and global, and a dinner table is a map for both community and the wider world.