Carles Tarrassó


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Fasting girls
Fundació Joan Brossa

La frutta che scherza
Galería Artnueve
Aigua en cistella
ARCOmadrid

Catalogo degli agrumi Real Academia de España en Roma
La construcció del gust
Centre Cultural la Nau

Espacio visceral
Centro Condeduque

El BartolíTodolí Citrus Fundació

Dulcis in fundoReal Academia de España en Roma

Jardín de las deliciasLoewe y AD Spain
Un tiempo espléndidoJardí Botànic de València

El comedor inca San Agustín de Callo (Cotopaxi)
La Lola
Hacienda la Herrería (Quito)


carles@parallelfood.com
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Espacio visceral

2022

Installation, various dimensions
Part of the collective exhibition Pan y Circo
Developed during the residency at tha Royal Academy of Spain in Rome


Shape
Citrus fruits on paper-clay porcelain
40 × 30 cm

Substance
Citrus fruits and white clay
60 × 100 × 10 cm

Colour
Fermented mandarin, pectin, sugar, cream of tartar
50 × 170 cm


In her book Ecoanimal, Marta Tafalla explores how our emotions, thoughts and behaviour are grounded in the information our senses provide about the world we inhabit, the body we are, and the interaction between our body and the world.

Sensory perception and appreciation are shaped by beliefs, values, practices and customs. In a contemporary society that tends towards uniformity and homogeneity, following a trajectory clearly opposed to that of a nature that creates diversity, our sensory perception develops in disregard of the vast food heritage held by our cultures, now at serious risk of disappearing as a result of current patterns of consumption and the exploitation of nature.

In Spain, Italy and throughout the Mediterranean, the botanical varieties that form part of gastronomy have been shaped over centuries of transfers and exchanges and, crucially, by the explosion of biodiversity resulting from the encounter between American and European biocenoses, giving rise to Italian and Spanish cuisines —and Latin American cuisines— as we know them today.

In Rome, combining research and practice, Carles Tarrassó explores the relationship between plant biodiversity, sensory experience and everyday life.

Through encounters and shared meals with people in the city engaged in caring for life and biodiversity, he comes into contact with wild and cultivated plants found in Rome and its surroundings, with particular attention to ancient, disused and recently introduced varieties.

Icons such as the artichoke, singularities such as the Medici family’s ornamental citrus fruits, and everyday yet overlooked plants growing in parks and gardens are transformed into spices and seasonings through the application of traditional and contemporary culinary techniques. Spices are one of the oldest manifestations of humankind’s fascination with the vegetal world, one of the most refined ways of appreciating its aesthetic value.

These seasonings are transferred into different media to generate a multisensory language, reflecting Rome’s biological and social biodiversity, and asserting our connection with nature as a form of self-knowledge and an opening towards plurality.



Carles Tarrassó







Installation. Included in Pan y Circo, presented at:
Condeduque, Madrid, Spain, 2023
Sala de Armas de la Ciudadela, Pamplona, Spain, 2023
and in Processi 149, end-of-residency exhibition at the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome, 2022






The pieces remain in a state of transformation:
a sheet of fermented mandarin responds to atmospheric conditions,
a solid block of citrus paste slowly cracks and releases its aromas.




Credits:Curator:
Alicia Ventura

Coordination:
Ana Moreno
Adrià Blanco

Ceramic technical support
Evandro Gabrielli

Design and installation assistant
Maria Guerrero

Metal structures
José Hervás

Acknowledgements
Maria Oliver Talens
Miguel Ángel Tarrassó Rovira
Mónica Gutiérrez Herrero
Elena Lavellés
Irazú López Campos
Marta Azparren






Colour



















Substance













The installation draws a parallel between residual spaces where plant species and traditional ways of life survive, and the inner spaces where our desires are housed. Through spices, condiments and transformed plant matter—fermented bergamot, dried garlic, oxidised artichoke—the work explores the sensory and aesthetic value of botanical diversity.

The ephemeral pieces register the forms and sensory characteristics of more than fifty ornamental citrus varieties from the Oscar Tintori collection. Using the paper-clay technique, fragments of the fruits are pressed into porcelain, leaving their forms and traces within the ceramic. Other pieces remain in a state of transformation: a sheet of fermented mandarin responds to changes in atmospheric conditions, while a solid block of citrus paste slowly cracks and releases its aromas as it dehydrates.












Shape













Shape













Processi 149
End-of-residency exhibition at the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome