The Barcelona-based arts collective Nyamnyam (Ariadna Rodriguez and Iñaki Alvarez) will be in residence in Madison from 29 August to 23 September.
Nyamnyam aims to promote creativity, knowledge exchange and culture by creating and sharing strategies to generate dialogue. We use artistic tools to design collective actions that create horizontal relationships that place everybody on the same level of action. We create a link between diverse forms of art, using food as a vehicle to create situations that invigorate relations and social contact between people. We aim to learn new ways to create synergies that can reactivate or rethink our ways of living, creating and eating.
The following is a list of scheduled public events:
Thursday, 8 September, 2 PM – 6 PM, Open Studio at the Bubbler, Madison Public Library, 201 W. Mifflin
Friday, 9 September Lunch with Food Studies Network, 12 PM, 212 University Club Building, 432 East Campus Mall. To sign up contact lbclark@wisc.edu.
Saturday, 17 September, 1 PM, Public Presentation at the Bubbler, Madison Public Library, 201 W. Mifflin
Wednesday, 21 September, 4:30 PM, Art Department Visiting Artist Series Public Lecture in Room 160 of the Elvehjem Building at the Chazen Museum
The artists are available to for studio visits with graduate students by appointment throughout this period. Please contact espai@nyamnyam.net to schedule a meeting.
Ariadna and Iñaki are also interested to meet local artists as time allows. Again, please contact the artists directly to schedule: espai@nyamnyam.net.
Nyamnyam’s website is mostly in Catalan. However, it can be good for seeing images of other projects so I am including it here: http://www.nyamnyam.net/
Articles in English about Nyamnyam work are at these links:
http://natashadrewnicki.com/index.php/2015/06/29/nyamnyam-unites-food-and-art-in-barcelona/
http://mirusmag.com/magazine-issue-1#page-44
While in residence, the artists will be involved with (at least) two projects.
Eat Food
Nyamnyam’s “Eat Food” project will begin by selecting texts from Michael Pollan’s book Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual. With a table as laboratory, elements of the text will be activated and transformed with a variety of materials and visual techniques. With a table as a stage, objects and ingredients will combine in a poetic manner to construct a scenario and a “play.” Nyamnyam’s process will be open for public participation throughout their stay. While the project is not designed specifically for children, they are most welcome.
All Fours
All Fours is an art project that begins with the notion of a table, with four legs, and how we all get to the same level when we share space and time around it. The starting point will be the building of the table/installation itself, with its collaborative construction already starting to create ties and build relationships, and also exploring both local materials and local culture so that the table is closely linked to place. All Fours can be activated at various locations as a temporary public relational art installation–a social environment in which people come together to participate in a shared activity–taking form as a possible publication, a series of posters, a radio program, a workshop and/or a live intervention.
Sponsors
This residency is supported with funds from Art Department, Center for Humanities Mellon Borghesi Workshop, Spatula&Barcode, and University Lectures
Co-sponsors: Art + Scholarship in Theory & Practice, Art History, Center for Visual Cultures, Design Studies, Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies, Spanish & Portuguese
Projects being developed in collaboration with Madison Public Library and MMoCA.
nyamnyam setting off to explore the Midwest
Spatula&Barcode 