Carles Tarrassó
a splendid time
July - September 2021
Botanical Garden of the University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
Presentation: September 22, 2021
Museum of the University of Navarra, Pamplona
Gastronomic experience and video
Original idea and text: Carles Tarrassó
"Silent" poem by Elena Krause Suárez
Video production and direction: Carles Tarrassó
Photography and video editing: David Luis Pérez Magan
Photographs: Cristóbal Neira
Logistics assistance: Maria Guerrero Oliver
HeBotanical Gardenof the University of Valencia is a space for contemplation and knowledge. It is the synthesis of many landscapes in the privacy of a garden, and the center of a whole network of activities that study biodiversity in order to conserve it, disseminate it, and promote its sustainable use. This work seeks to contribute to these tasks, which are crucial at the present time.
walks in the garden
Humans are biophilic beings, we need contact with biodiversity and this has become evident during the confinements of recent months, in which with each relaxation of the restrictive measures, people flooded the parks and returned to walk through the countryside.
The COVID-19 crisis has also highlighted the disconnection with nature that the current social and economic systems have led us to. The overcrowding in which we live in cities, the longing for a nature that many hardly know and its impact on our psychology. Many of the current phenomena of social crisis, such as climate refugees, are a consequence of the destruction of ecosystems by human action.
This project began with a series of attentive walks through the Botanical Garden, as a way of connecting with nature.
On these walks, information was also collected on gastronomically and sensorially interesting plants, which were collected in a photo session carried out with the collaboration of photographer Cristóbal Neira.
Collage of sensory interesting plants collected in the Botanical Garden
the sweets
The six candies designed for the project are based on the subjective impressions of the garden, and on the study of symbols associated with the plant world. At the same time, they want to be a vindication of gastronomy as a form of multisensory artistic expression. The sweets are presented in a recycled cardboard box wrapped in linen and silk fabrics dyed for this project with vegetable substances, and flavored with lemon verbena.
The tree
This chapter is inspired by the large oak tree at the beginning of the garden, and revolves around the symbolism that trees have had in different cultures as connectors for heaven and earth. Many substances that have their origin in trees have a sacred role in rites of different religions throughout history. Aromatic substances such as cinnamon and incense, and products such as olive oil, used to anoint in religious ceremonies.
The treat, made only with ingredients from trees, is inspired by the idea of sacred oil, and is intended to be an initiation into the experience. It is a shortbread of olive oil and smoked walnuts with burnt cinnamon smoke, flavored with rosemary. Appeals to the senses of smell and trigeminal, for the balsamic and pungent smoky cinnamon.
Photosynthesis
He talks about photosynthesis as a representation of the processes that we do not see and that sustain our life, such as the processes of our body. Photosynthesis is also a process that is invisible to the naked eye and that generates life.
The candy is made up of leaves. It is a black tea gummy flavored with bergamot. The dark parts are matcha black tea.
By playing with light and shadows, he appeals to the senses of thermoception and sight. Also with interoception, when comparing photosynthesis with the vital processes of our body that we often do not see, but that we do perceive.
The GreenHouse
Play on our understanding of nature, with the idea of exploring other more primary languages to connect with the transcendent.
The candy is ethereal, an edible paper garnished with dried rose, mallow and marigold petals and flavored with yuzu.
It appeals to the senses of hearing and balance, two closely related senses as both are found in the organ of hearing. Play with the lightness of the aperitif -as heavy as a cigarette paper- and the light crunch of the dried petals.
The pond
He talks about the desire for permanence of the human being, who constantly faces the processes of nature that are ephemeral, are in constant change, in constant renewal.
The treat represents a submerged water lily, made of rhubarb, accompanied by tarragon.
It appeals to the sense of chronoception, since the flow of water is a recurring metaphor for the passage of time.
The spines
He talks about the need generated by fear and ignorance to distance oneself from nature.
The delicacy is a light cloud of prickly pears and peach, with a candied thorn of hibiscus flower.
Appeals to the senses of touch and sight. The skin, the organ of touch, is what separates us from the outside world and reacts to internal and external stimuli. Internal such as emotions of fear, love or shame, and external such as rubbing against sharp thorns.
the mandrake
It represents the interest and fear generated in us by the properties of certain plants such as the mandrake, to which healing powers are attributed but also the danger of poisoning.
The candy is a nixtamalized parsnip root, which represents the mandrake, candied with balsamic and spicy spices, playing with the idea of the curative and poisonous at the same time.
Due to the aromatic complexity provided by the spices cooked with the parsnip, it appeals to the senses of taste and smell. He also plays again with interoception, since the tension between the ideas of cure or poisoning invites us to analyze the sensations of one's own body after eating the candy.
Production
Cristobal
david louis
Carlos
Presentation at the Navarra Gastro Summit 2021
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The experience was presented on September 22, 2021 in a workshop at the Navarra Gastro Summit in Pamplona.
The workshop consisted of a talk on sensoriality and ecological art from the gastronomic discipline, and a tasting of the sweets. The chapters of the artistic video that are inspired by each one of them accompanied the tasting, generating an immersive experience.
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