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Open Room - Trinh Linh Chi, Nguyen Hai Yen, Lola Diaz Cantoni

Right from the beginning, we were curious about each other’s culture, habits, rituals and family costumes. After sharing memories and personal stories, we decided to work with food and its impact on our daily life. Inspired by the ‘jam box’ that people have during New Year in Vietnam, we created our own version of it by combining food from the places where we come from and are currently living in. We called it ‘Share your thoughts box’ and on it there are Sunflower seeds and Peanut candies from Vietnam, teabags of Mate and a jar with Dulce de Leche from Argentina; and Stroopwafels from The Netherlands.

We where also interested on how people experience and behave towards the simple act of eating and sharing a meal together in each of our countries. We wanted to create something bigger for the audience to interact among each other and where the box could be also part. Open room is the result of our encounters and shared ideas. We would like to encourage the visitors to experience the installation by taking a card out of an envelope and sit while trying out any of the food available from the box. By taking the question from the card as a starting point for a conversation with someone else, the visitor changes its role from passive to active, leaving its mark on the work itself. During the opening the artists will be performing together with the audience.