Bacchantes is the video project directed by Lamyna born from the collaboration between the WE R FOOD and designer Giulia Soldati created for the special Design for Christmas by Elledecor.it. The project aims to suggest a different kind of conviviality, poised between performance and theatre, where the undisputed protagonists are the actions of the diners. Born as storytelling for an auteur video directed by Lamyna, the concept is based on a sequence of 3 culinary scenes showing a series of three installations , all culinary, designed by the designer, intended to show how design can fit into a context that might seem already clearly defined — like that of the table — proposing new codes for experiencing food.
The project offers a new point of view that breaks with the classic mise en place, proposing gestures defined by new interactions around the table. The three courses reinvent the traditional Christmas lunch and suggest gestures that redefine the conventional behaviour at the table on a day of the year when what to eat, how to serve it, but above all how to eat it is dictated by established customs. The first course becomes a floating installation , made up of tortellini suspended above the table, waiting to be dipped into individual portions of broth.
Both the action of hanging the tortellini and the action of picking them up to dip them in the broth generates a new vertical gesture, which adds to the horizontal one suggested by the table. The second course draws attention to the centre of the table, bringing a convivial and shared quality. The sea bass in a salt crust becomes a geometric block, almost sculptural. The cutlery becomes small hammers used to break the block of salt, generating a decisive gesture, an almost primordial act of breaking.
The final installation brings back to life a wooden sieve , an object that is traditionally the star of the kitchen, where food preparation takes place. The sieve is installed above the table, waiting to be shaken by the diners to release the icing sugar onto the pandoro. The gesture echoes the already familiar action of shaking the pandoro inside its bag.
Video Lamyna
PH Ingrid Taro