Throughout the month of June 2020, the Museum of Edible Earth has enjoyed a residency within the art space Diptych, in Amsterdam, for the project ‘Diptych in love’. Diptych is a transdisciplinary playground by the visual artist Ola Lanko who expanded her artistic practice into the field of gastronomy exploring unconventional tools questing for meaning. It is an eight-seat Omakase room in Amsterdam.
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View from Diptych's website
An integral part of her exploration was an immersive installation, which functioned as a public space where her artistic vision is translated into a culinary experience. At Diptych the fundamental principle is trust. Omakase stands for 'I leave it up to you'. Guests were asked to give in and for trust and in return a unique experience was created for them in front of their eyes.
There is a growing awareness that we live in times of rapid change and division. Making humans and our planet step into an unstable path, leaving us feeling detached from our environment. consumerism, fast-paced economy, acceleration in technology, globalisation and climate change contribute to the feeling of disorientation. At Diptych Ola Lanko has built a space where these shifts can be experienced and certain resilience can be exercised.
The Omakase room in Diptych by Ola Lanko
‘Omakase’ is short for ‘Omakase Shimasu’ which means « I leave it up to you » in Japanese. Trust is the main principle Omakase-style restaurants are built on. There is no fixed menu, list of dishes and sometimes not even prices. Guests give the chef the freedom to create a special experience. In return, she creates a tailor-made menu right in front of the guests who are seated at the chef’s counter in an intimate atmosphere. The dishes are based on an artistic vision and in response to the flow of the evening. At Diptych’s counter, you observe the transformation of familiar and less familiar ingredients into carefully created dishes and learn about the stories that inspired them. Our style is inclusive in terms of technique, ingredients, and presentation. Inspired by Japanese principles and cuisine, Diptych combines elements of different culinary traditions and turns them into something new. Local farmers work hard to produce the purest and most flavourful ingredients. The aim of this space is to convey and elevate their craft and bring the highest quality seasonal products to the guests.
Food exploration at Diptych by Ola Lanko
During this residency period, the Museum has focused on two major developments:
1. A physical archive taking shape as a modular installation with the capacity to adapt to the full size of the collection or be dispatched in smaller parts for exhibitions.
For this first part we have worked in partnership with the Amsterdam-based German designer Basse Stittgen who designed and produced the installation. The installation being modular, it is planned to evolve organically along the expansion of the collection.
The modular installation of the Museum of Edible Earth in Diptych by Ola Lanko. Product design by Basse Stittgen. Build-up assistance by Asia Semeniuk. Photo by Alexandra Hunts
2. A virtual interactive archive appearing as a website gathering the extensive database with photos, videos, texts and a systematic way of organizing every sample through a unique code and a classification by color, country, shape and composition.
The online platform was designed by the French creative web developer Raphaël Pia and is being continuously developed. >>
View of the Museum of Edible Earth website
The event occurring at the end of our residency period, 'Diptych in love’, was a collaborative platform driven by raw passions manifesting in a gastronomic experience and artistic expressions. For six month different artists and projects (including the Museum of Edible Earth) have enjoyed a month-long residency: Afra Eisma, Comfort Ball Collective, Alexandra Hunts, Ernests Vilsons and Marthe Prins. As a result of this collaboration an autonomous body of work that includes a design of an 11-course dinner as a special event has taken place.
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Some edible soil samples on display at Diptych by Ola Lanko. Product design by Basse Stittgen. Build-up assistance by Asia Semeniuk. Graphic design by Olga Ganzha. Photo by Alexandra Hunts
The event happened on the 2nd of July at Diptych. Some of the samples from the collection from the Museum of Edible Earth were paired with the collection of salts which Ola Lanko gathered from all over the world. In the showroom of the space was exhibited the modular installation displaying the collection. The audience was invited to share their earth experiences on the online virtual archive. As an addition to the earth encounter and tasting visitors could enjoy various types of ice cream made with earth. Final presentation evolved into a combined performative, intimate and multi sensorial experience challenging traditional frameworks of the exhibition spaces. To remain a safe space, the dinner was limited to a small number of persons who booked it, and the access to the exhibition room limited to 2 persons at a time.
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