BRAINFOOD is a video animation of more than 3,000 photographs taken during the germination of a sculptural skull made of Chilean Porotos Señorita (“Young Lady Beans”) over the course of a month. The beans symbolize the pulse of life and death as the seed within the never-ending cycle of death and rebirth.
Beans are a traditional crop from the New World. Prior to colonization –and to this day– these legumes constitute the basis of most Latin American and Caribbean diets. Different types of beans are also present in the mythical foundations of various pre-Colombian societies as a major food ingredient.
BRAINFOOD was first presented as a part of Vanitas, a still life video-installation at the exhibition FOOD at SESC Pinheiros, Sao Paulo, Brazil, in February 2014. Referencing the visual memento mori of the Spanish baroque, and composed by the bean skulls, as well as collected McDonald waste, the reliquary reunited both the most sophisticated and the most superficial elements of the city. The physical remains of BRAINFOOD are now planted in the “campo santo” or vegetable garden of the cemetery of Barcelona’s Sant Pau del Camp Romanesque church, continuing its life and death germination cycle.
BRAINFOOD
Idea & Production: Miralda
Production Assistant: James Balder
Editing & Post Production: CoralĂ Mercader
Thanks to Julia de Luis, Montse GuillĂ©n, Anna CufĂ, Leonardo Grotta
© Miralda for FoodCultura, 2014