ALL FOOD IS POLITICAL

All food is political

Installation: Wooden table 250x50x71 sm, inscription made by dough

This work begins with a recipe by chef Alexander Gotsev, recounting his childhood memories and the breakfast his grandfather used to prepare. The dish is called Popara. While we commonly associate it with Bulgaria, Popara can also be found across other Balkan countries. Even the name is often shared, though the ingredients and preparation may differ, not just between countries, but between regions within them. 

In today's context of division and closing borders, this work presents a wooden table cut into separate parts. Each piece represents a different country, yet all are part of the same structure. The table can exist as both fragmented and whole, connected through culture, but divided by politics.

We can share the same food, yet it can also become a source of conflict. Cuisine is used to build national identity, to claim ownership, to draw lines. But it also has the power to bring us together—to gather us around the same table.

That’s why the unifying element of the piece is an inscription made from dough. It weaves through the table’s fragments like a thread, soft and perishable, yet binding. The text is written in English, and here is where the first conflict begins.