During her residency, curator Rosita Ronzini organised a dinner to share her research. In her words:
“This dinner is conceived as a deliberate curatorial performance, part of the research project Northern Crossings. Learning from the Table, which investigates the table as an ecological, political, and pedagogical space: a device in which the act of nourishing becomes a practice of knowledge, care, and coexistence.
Around 15 participants – artists, curators, researchers – gathered around a single convivial installation. The table, covered with baking paper, was activated as a writable, living surface. At its center, a guiding question: Who has nourished you to become who you are today?
During the dinner, no plates were used. The food was placed directly on the tablecloth, transforming the surface into a shared field of relations. The traces as words, memories, names, fragments of recipes, were written directly on the paper, intertwining with stains of butter, beetroot, and oil. Graphic marks and food residue cohabited the same space, producing a material archive of the experience.
The dinner started with fried bread with cabbage, onion, and garlic: a typical offer from Southern Italy crafted in dialogue with Nordic ingredients. A bitter note enriched the complexity experience of nourishment. The main course, handmade gnocchi, were placed directly in the center of the table and each participant chose between two landscapes of taste: butter with sage and herbs, or beetroot cream. The seasoning was crafted to activated a reflection on passage, hybridization, and cultural negotiation. The first bite took place in silence. The closing, with baked apples with cinnamon and yogurt cream, brought the experience back to an intimate, domestic dimension.
More than a meal, the dinner takes shape as a performative situation and a research device. Through the absence of plates, the sharing of the surface, and the production of traces, the table became simultaneously place, method, and archive: a temporary space in which conviviality and situated learning generated a relational micro-ecology”.
Rosita Ronzini (1996, Maglie) is a curator and researcher living between Turin and Salento. She trained in Cinema, Performing Arts and Media at the University of Turin and in curatorial practices with CAMPO at the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation. She is currently assistant curator at PAV Parco Arte Vivente in Turin and co-founder of Collettivo Crampo, active in research, curation, and education. She collaborates with the studio of artist Elena Mazzi and with organisations such as Inland, Free Home University, and Casa delle Agriculture. Her research focuses on rituals, commoning, and ecological resistance practices in the Mediterranean, fostering connections between art, territories, and collective movements.
