The evening began with welcome drinks as guests settled into an intimate table of 10 people. The artist and chef collaboration featured wine pairing with small plates and a Freudian “bite,” with Syrian-British chef Mo Kalash responding to Ingrid Berthon-Moine‘s practice through the curated menu and prompts.
Guests experienced a playful activity during the evening, with lots of laughter and explorations of themes of deflation, castration, and the human body stemmed from Ingrid’s practice. Artist presentations and discussions took place before dessert, creating space for meaningful dialogue around the provocative themes. Each participant left with a goodie bag by Ingrid and memories of an evening filled with humor, art, and culinary innovation.
Ingrid Berthon-Moine‘s artistic practice, spanning sculpture, drawing, and video, explores the physical and cultural dimensions of the human body. Drawing inspiration from diverse sources such as language, psychoanalysis, and feminism, Berthon-Moine weaves personal narratives into her work, challenging conventional understandings of human experiences like sexuality, illness,
and death.
Rooted in the experience of inhabiting a female body, Berthon-Moine disrupts idealized femininity, proposing a new language for female subjectivity. Combining the strange and the familiar, her sculptures defy conventional gender binaries with anthropomorphic forms, immersing viewers in a realm of ambiguity and disquieting sexuality. Her visceral drawings and sculptures also capture the rhythm of life in constant flux, exploring the evolving nature of human identity. By breaking down barriers between self and others, male and female, Berthon-Moine invites us to embrace ambiguity and the blurring of boundaries. In a moment where the modern Western vision of the human being is being challenged, Berthon-Moine’s works explore the representation of bodies and their metamorphoses. Her hybrid, manifold subjects signal new subjectivities, hierarchies and anatomies.
Mo Kalash holds supper clubs that centre traditional Syrian dishes, modernised with techniques from the myriad kitchens in which he has worked. His cuisine uses old, time-rich ways of preserving food, influenced by the rose petals and apricots that dried on the terrace of his childhood home in the Aleppo sun. Mo grew up in Syria but became a chef in London, his home now for 17 years. Having originally moved to study film, an enduring love of cinema and theatre still shapes Mo’s artistic process: a dinner is a performance of sorts. There should be flow in the menu, dialogue with the diners and all the senses should be captivated. Currently working on a collection of stories and recipes.
