Cum panis: bread and its ecologies
Le 19 CRAC

From February 9 to May 5, 2024, the 19 CRAC – Montbéliard Regional Centre for Contemporary Art presents the group exhibition “Cum Panis: bread and its ecologies” bringing together international artistic practices about bread, its ecologies and its social, political, economic, cultural and aesthetic effects. The fifteen artists on show include Canadian artist Sameer Farooq.

Associating art and food is a way of perceiving, absorbing and being in the world. The table is as much a place for sharing, for consensus, as it is for expressing tensions and antagonisms. The table is also a space of resistance and companionship.Inspired by the etymology of the latter term, derived from companion and the Latin cum panis, “with bread”, the exhibition aims to explore the relationship between art and bread, and the importance of this foodstuff in social, political, economic and geographical constructions. Bread is seen here as revealing narratives (personal or collective) and as a lever for generating common ground that encourages the emergence of forms of collective creation.

The links between people and bread are ancestral. But what are they? Through its production and consumption, what does bread reveal about the way we eat, the way we structure our societies, and the way we conceive of collective cultural interactions? Present throughout the world, what does it reveal each time about the place where it was conceived, or about those who contributed to its conception, from the production of wheat and flour, to baking, leavening and kneading? How can we observe bread both as the product of a succession of human technologies, and as a tool both pragmatic and symbolic of the transmission of specific contexts?

Taking an interest in bread means delving into the many agricultural, cultural, family, economic and spiritual histories of complex and very different socio-political contexts.It also means taking a closer look at a world heritage that is a medium for conviviality, invention and creation.Bread, in all its many facets, arouses curiosity, stimulates the senses and whets the appetite. For all its qualities, bread also traverses the history of artistic practices: between art and life, art and science, as a material for experimentation, teaching and sharing. It allows us to reconnect with the contexts of creation, with artisanal practices, with the reanimation of forgotten knowledge in the act of creating… in order to do things together.

Co-curators: Grace Gloria Denis and Adeline Lépine

Artists: Amanny Ahmad, Broudou Magazine, Grace Gloria Denis, Ymane Fakhir, Sameer Farooq, Anna Bella Geiger, Alison Knowles, Valeria Mata, Gordon Matta-Clark, Julia Morlot, Claude Ponti, Lúcia Prancha, Marie Preston, Lexie Smith, Louise Johansson Waite and objects from the collection of Grenoble Museum and Besançon Museum of Resistance and Déportation.

With the support of the Canadian Cultural Centre.