Sour Possibilities
Eliza Chojnacka and Lena Michalik
Sour Possibilities is an ongoing investigation focused on the metaphors evoked by fermentation. The project began in the midst of the pandemic in 2020, and relates to living the reality of a crisis. It consists of research outcomes such as video, text and story-recipes expressing the correlation of food fermentation practices and social ferments.
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The project uses fermentation as a model for the imaginaries of social movements. Its aim is to observe states of crisis and to address possible means of survival, liberated from anthropocentric narration. Through the application of a metaphorical analogy, the project examines the current state of society and prospects for traces of social transformation starters in the midst of a global pandemic.
Sour Possibilities proposes a reflection on the potential purposes of fermentation, as a practice of desired imaginaries of futures. In this project, Eliza Chojnacka and Lena Michalik have preferred the use of biochemical processes as a means for mediation within the social context. Fermenting is an approachable simplification of the resistance scheme in which the individual is part of a bigger transformation. Through hands-on practice the artists address less tangible issues, revealing tortuous narratives. Asking about the order of collective motivation, a narrated video tries to move, to shake and to stress the rejected sensuality of the crisis. How can a sensing society be cultivated at this particular moment in time?
The work aims to cultivate at least a tiny grain of resistance power and a sense of coexistence and collaboration; necessary elements for finding one another in times of crisis. The nature of fermentation – a complex example of interdependence – is, for the authors of the project, a subtext for the discussion on current social motivations and the joint search for collective futures. What could be a starter for social empowerment in a time of a shared state of crisis?
- Time
- Winter Semester 20/21
- Team
- Eliza Chojnacka and Lena Michalik