HAVE DINNER WITH ME - SEVEN SCENT // UNION // MIC TOI REREHIKO // 2010

Food has always been an important cultural and social factor. For the closing ceremony,  dinner is offered as a chance to see the final evolution of the work whilst exchanging ideas and reflecting on the process. As dinner is a time where the gift of food can be passed on with added weight and added meaning. The creation of food is very similar to the creation of culture. We live in a time where the importance of food security, expanding sustainable agriculture practices as well as social and environmental aspects are stressed. Have Dinner With Me is an invitation to actively participate in politically engaged conversations around food and food autonomy, as well as providing opportunity to swap seeds, recipes and enjoy an organic culinary experience. This concept of service and integration of social responsibility into the process of creating art appears to be most successful when combined with a dependence on community participation. Community participation equals community feedback equals a semblance of community ownership and then without the community there is no product, no vegetables, no empowerment, no shared knowledge, and no art.

“Thus generosity became the medium, or methodology, and the subject, or product, of the project.”  Mary-Jane Jacob.