There is something fascinating about building a kitchen, which goes beyond wood and nodes, sketches and stoves. Building a kitchen is not only a physical endeavor but an exercise in thinking: it is an invitation to unpack history through a place in which tastes, trades, and trends converge.

In Autumn 2018, we launched an online publishing platform and a new research theme, ‘A Matter of (In)digestions’: a call to pay attention to what we tend to take for granted, that is, what we consume, unfolding some of the socio-political, historical and cultural intersections that consumption implies. With this research program, we continue our exploration of the kitchen as a trope, as an alchemical laboratory, and catalyzer of a broad variety of ingredients—whether edible, cultural, or ideological.

La Cocina’s first season was developed in collaboration with architect Andrés Novo, and artists Mirko Lazovic and Igor Sevcuk. It took place in 2016-2017 at Goleb, an artist-run space located in Amsterdam Nieuw-West, and encompassed a series of events (debates, multimedia performances, screenings), an artist residency, a reading group, and an exhibition. This season took as a point of departure the kitchen as a contested space and put emphasis on the kitchen in its relation to standardization, acceleration, and the modernist agenda in which a certain idea of progress started to crumble.

About us:

La Cocina was co-founded by Lore Gablier & Alejandro Ramírez

Lore holds an MFA in Fine arts. In 2005-2006, she completed her studies at the curatorial training program of the École du Magasin in Grenoble. She has since curated exhibitions internationally and edited a number of publications. In parallel, she has also held various positions in artistic and cultural institutions in France and the Netherlands. From 2009 to 2013, she was coordinator of the École du Magasin, and was chief curator at the Centre d’art contemporain de la Ferme du Buisson in Noisiel, France, for the season 2013-2014. Since 2015, she is working as Project Manager at the European Cultural Foundation in Amsterdam.

Alejandro – Trained as a filmmaker and self-taught as a cook. I work as an investigator with a pronounced taste for dead-ends and wormholes. Through my artistic and curatorial practice, I venture through stories and history, incorporating my interests in architecture, science, and cuisine, in an attempt to forge critical narratives.

In my recent work, I am exploring multispecies relations and decolonial narratives. Over the years, my oeuvre has developed into films, film/photography installations, and programming. My work has been shown internationally, notably in Italy, Taiwan, Colombia and The Netherlands.

www.alejandroramirez.info

Thanks to Virginie Gauthier for the graphic design
Web programming by Maxim Tyminko