The Role of Food

A shared meal is a gateway to intimacy, a whole world of flavours and conversations that opens up between two people. To taste the food of another culture is to surrender to it, to literally open our inner selves to what is unknown. The role of food in generating empathy makes it an essential element. Food was present in both performances in which the audience was invited to taste samosas, momos, dishes from the South and North of India - invitations used as pretexts to enter into these cultures. For the Portuguese living in the town of São Teotónio without ever crossing paths with the migrants who share this same place, it was a huge step to try traditional dishes from their cultures. In this respect, food had also a democratising and facilitating function, offering the local population the opportunity to taste, experiment and take risks. It also provides comfort. The shows were long and the nights were cold. The public encountered the food and dishes served as signs of hospitality, in parking lots converted into banquets. Eating together is always a ritual. In the case of BOWING, food was a door to the outside world where new flavors and cultures explained their identity without words in the most intimate way possible: inside the mouths.