Sara García Fernández: moulding mourning mouths

On November 12, 2024, Sara García Fernández, who had been in residence at MGLC Švicarija from September to November, presented a performance showcasing the work and ideas she developed during her time there.

The project moulding mourning mouths reflects on planetary grief through multi-species feeding, the importance of coexistence and food ethics. The project focuses on grains, bread and the mourning that we live for the irreversible loss of biodiversity. The research includes different edible offerings that we, the living, make to the dead and the extinct, and what relationships we establish to continue providing them with an existence among us, the living.

The artist is interested in the table because of its potential for coexistence. It is a place that allows us to ask ethical questions about the best way to get closer to each other. At the table is possible to propose a hospitality open to difference, seeking responsibility and welcome towards and from others. Multi-species eating reveals our interconnectedness with other forms of life. Both farming and eating are gestures that link us to ecologies, in which ourselves as well as others are fed.

To carry out the project Sara García Fernández is working with bread. Remains of bread from 14,000 years ago were found when agriculture did not yet exist. It seems it was made with non-domesticated wheat and is believed to have been used in rituals. A characteristic that has been maintained over time. Bread is a generator of bonds; it is a clear example of hospitality. The word ‘companion’ comes from cumpanis “the one with whom we share our bread”. Also, bread changed at the same time as production in wheat agriculture changed, from grain selection to Green Revolution modifications. Genetically modified agriculture, flour separation, bleaching and accelerated leavening go hand in hand with climate change, leading us away from the slow wholemeal sourdough bread and the multispecies community of bacteria.

In Slovenia Sara García Fernández has worked with buckwheat, this pseudo cereal is part of the edible culture from the country since the 15th century. Nowadays it’s known that this plant makes a huge difference on the landscape as it feeds pollinators, the soil and humans.

Sara García Fernández (1983, Gijón, Španija) aims to expand the way we approach the unknown through the creation of experiences. For her, the unknown embodies the Other with whom collaboration is possible: the host and the guest. It is also about what we cannot master, control, or name. From this point of view, she is interested in questioning the look into the darkness from a rationalist perspective; she seeks recognition of the hidden in our experiences and tries to explore other ways of approaching what we call reality. She uses a variety of techniques, including the use of fermented foods, local clays, and foraged plants, to create intimate sensory experiences that explore the concept of hospitality and, by extension, our relationship with the Other. (saragarcia.info)

Participation in a performance: Ema Ajster

Production of prints: Print Studio MGLC, Jakob Puh

Photo: Urška Boljkovac. MGLC Archive.

Production: International Centre of Graphic Arts (MGLC), November 2024