Cucina è Bello Participatory Art – Ceramic Plates & Gnocchi

A participatory installation by Elena Braida, reimagining her grandmother’s gnocchi recipe as a communal dining ritual. We designed ceramic plates tailored for the act of eating together, orbiting a U-shaped platform where ingredients, memories, and hands from multiple cities converge into one collective gesture.

Cucina e bello, Installation, Object, Amsterdam (…)
< go back

Cucina è Bello Participatory Art Project

Elena Braida developed Cucina è Bello Participatory Art as her graduation project at the 2020 Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. For this unique installation, she invited CTP – Conversation Taking Place because she wanted to collaborate on the concept. Together, we designed ceramic plates specifically meant for eating gnocchi, recreating her Grandma’s inherited recipe. The collaboration therefore blends culinary tradition and artistic expression, resulting in an immersive, participatory experience.

Concept and Visitor Engagement

Participation and sensory experience play a central role in the Cucina è Bello Participatory Art installation. Visitors are invited to actively engage by eating gnocchi on the specially crafted ceramic plates. In our collaboration, we focused on creating elements that amplify the narrative of heritage and shared memory. Consequently, the project successfully combines food culture with visual art in a meaningful way.

Artistic and Cultural Importance

Transforming the everyday acts of cooking and eating into art, the Cucina è Bello Participatory Art highlights the emotional significance of family recipes and traditions. Moreover, the ceramic plates symbolize this cultural transmission, encouraging visitors to reflect on the beauty and ritual of shared meals.

About Elena Braida and Gerrit Rietveld Academie

Elena Braida is a visual artist and designer whose work explores the intersections of craft, food, and participation. She graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 2020. Her project, Cucina è Bello Participatory Art, exemplifies the academy’s focus on experimental and community-driven artistic practices.

Explore more on CTP’s homepage.

Immo Schneider Conversation Taking Place CTP. TP. P.

Cucina é bello! (Cook, it’s beautiful) is the graduation project (2020 Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam) of Elena Braida. She invited us to collaborate with her on the concept for participatory art installation. We created the concept of ceramic plates designed especially for the purpose of eating gnocchi within the reenactment of Elena’s inherited recipe of her Grandma.

The ingredients orbit around the u-shaped platform. Some of them are the fruit of collaborations which took place in different cities, made by different hands on very different setting and mood. Others were made in the confinement of my domestic realm. The background of this recipe finds its start in my grandmother’s gnocchi. Her name is Laura and at 86 years old she is the cornerstone of the restaurant of my uncles in Manzano, Italy. (source: Elena Braida)

Gnocchi Plates for communal dinners and multiple plate arrangements.

The restaurant is located in her very own mansion, a rustic one characterised by the u-shaped structure. She lives one staircase away from the dining room and cooks for the customers in her very own kitchen. Her kitchen is located in the up-right start of the letter U. Like every movement, there is a start and an end. Since It relates to a specific period of time, the way the ingredients find their road into the platform is through an act in which the involvement of the viewer becomes the main component of this banquet. I am no longer alone with the ingredients. – Words by Elena Braida

Related to this

CinCinCin, Calendar Edition 2022

Collaborate with CTP. TP. P.

Send a message (…)