Zhenya Chaika: Residency Conclusion

Zhenya Chaika completed her residency at Golubitskoe Foundation several weeks ago. Zhenya Chaika is an independent curator, manager of cultural projects, researcher and writer. At the invitation of the Foundation, Zhenya conducted research for her book Art Residencies and How to Cook Them.

As part of Zhenya's residency, she gave an open lecture-discussion at the Typography Center for Contemporary Art in Krasnodar, where she talked about the very format of the art residency with the audience that featured curators, artists and researchers.

Zhenya Chaika's residency concluded with a farewell lunch with the artists of the De Profundis. An exhibition of apposite art, as well the teams of the Golubitskoe Art Foundation’s and Golubitskoe Estate. After studying the structure of the residency and its defining features, Zhenya put together a list of key ingredients and transformed her residency experience into a process of making lunch. During her research, Zhenya reread Dictionary of the Khazars:
A Lexicon Novel by Milorad Pavić: «The letters of the Khazar alphabet were named after different dishes of the Khazar cuisine, and the numbers – after the seven types of salt distinguished by the Khazars».

The main course was the summer version of borscht. Apart from that, the lunch could be put together like a construction toy. The guests could season the simple dishes – baked fish and meat, freshly baked bread, cheeses, tomatoes, rice – to taste. For this Zhenya prepared a mixture of salts, spices and flowers in advance and made syrups using cordials from local herbs with some seasonal fruits and berries. On the dining table, salt was located on the side of the sea, and sugar on the side of the estuary (freshwater = sweet water). This is how a simple gastronomic illustration of the area was discovered.

Zhenya wrote in her journal:

Lunch is a gastronomic presentation of the key features of the residency. Methodologically and gradually, the steps are: to identify the main points and processes in the residency and, through multiple links in the chain of references, turn them into ingredients and technologies for their processing, and then into dishes that taste good.’