This is the story of the grace notes of my recent sabbatical.
One cold Sunday morning when I was having breakfast at my local Italian cafe at my local Italian cafe, the baker told me he was leaving the next day. I was a sad because I really enjoyed his bread, it was clearly baked with love and care. He offered me some of his starter after hearing my troubles getting my own going. I resisted, wanting to conqueur the process, then after some gentle prodding I acquiesced and took some home with simple instructions. Sourdough starters usually have names, mine is Rocco after the cafe. I went on to produce several week baked loaves.
I shared the starter with my brother who has baked some successful loaves since then. I also shared some with my friend Marina, she is having a go too.
Its daunting to think of spending the time tending the bread for some people, but my bread often comes in the car with me, we have taken rocco to a family Sunday lunch, with great results. Rocco is a social starter.
I decided to dry out Rocco and take them on my sabbatical, aiming to bake a loaf at each place I visited if conditions allowed.
Paris - a poor attempt, on my own, no dutch oven, jet lag and baking, not a good idea.
Beverwijk, NL , a better attempt in the company of Esther my host and her partner, I baked it for her birthday which was during my stay. They were so amazed and loved the scent the bread brought to their home, and the taste of true sourdough. Rocco rested and rose on my lap as I typed my paper for Scotland . I made sandwiches for the Eurostar trip and carried Rocco to the Uk where I used the bread all the next week.
Shrewsbury, USA I visited my sister for a weekend and we baked. Her husband is a chef but rarely dabbles in bread. Rocco came to the hairdressers with us, so we didn’t miss out on quality time.
The following weekend was a holiday and I shared the bread with a family from New Jersey, Linda and Tom who always wanted to make bread, well Tom really really did anyway. They were so happy with their result.
Girona, I made another Catalan yeast infused Rocco on my own, the loves were a gift for my artist friend Jenny Trinks.
On of my final stops in France was a weekend in Boutenac. We had fresh bread every morning, However after Andre Bleuze my host and his wife Danielle offered me their home grown fig jam, I offered to take up their enthusiastic request to show them how to make sourdough, using my last flakes of dried rocco starter ( I left some in the fridge at home don’t worry).
Andre sent me the image of is conquest - it was great. I relayed this story to my other favourite baker, Shady and his wife Rose at Poiok bakery in Pyrmont.
He told me he thought it was a nice story.
So this social starter idea - it seems to have elements of my creative practice emerging,
and Im not alone …
The Argentinian artist Julieta García Vazquez develops collective projects that respond to specific contexts, be they social, urban or environmental. She imagines actions and collaborations that oscillate between the need to respond to a situation and the possibility of allowing poetry and utopias to emerge. Preserve, transmit, reactivate and imagine are at the origin of each project thought collectively, and bringing together for example the inhabitants of a neighborhood, a socio-professional category or the fringe of a given population.
In the work of Julieta García Vazquez, the collaborative form is a support for reflection on society, its organization and its possibilities. In 2005 she co-founded the Rosa Chancho artists' collective and the exhibition space of the same name based in Buenos Aires. Through his multiple interventions and experiments, the group questions the forms of the exhibition, the fields of creation and collective action. In her personal work, Julieta García Vazquez stands out from the format of the exhibition and builds her research from meetings and exchanges. If projects she initiates sometimes result in documents or objects, her artistic practice develops in the margins of any form of materiality and representation.
On the occasion of his residence SAM ART Projects, the artist designs a collaborative project based on bread. In association with bakers and poets, she proposes time mixing breadmaking and a reflection on its symbols, its history and its issues in echo with current issues.
Commissioner : Adelaide White