This project was inspired by a curiosity in whether people from the former Soviet states, more than two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, share similar food memories and knowledge. What better place to explore it than at the 13th European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) Biennial Conference 2014 in Tallinn, Estonia, a former Soviet state itself!
The food laboratory (Re)creating intimacy through food: searching for (post-)Soviet taste took place on August 2nd, 2014 as a part of the experimental conference events that aimed to create different ethnographic experiences, exploring anthropological methods ‘in real time’.
The (post-)Soviet taste laboratory was a staged and experimental cooking event in a student dormitory that was originally constructed during the Soviet times, albeit renovated. The menu was selected based on an informal survey among the post-Soviets on Facebook. The participants, who were of both Soviet and non-Soviet backgrounds cooked Soviet-style food and consumed it together. This took place under the guidance of two anthropologists, who had both been born in the late 1970s and grew up in the former USSR, thus tapping into the collective memory of those who had experienced Soviet cooking and creating a new memory for those who had not.
In the end, the Laboratory turned into a staged collage of memories and imaginaries of a food event likely during the 1980s, a time that corresponded to the childhood memories of both anthropologist-convenors.
The participants were given freedom to decorate the room with artefacts from those times, participate in the cooking process, eat, drink and share their experiences, memories and thoughts. In the process, the participants shared intimacy through food that was captured by a professional photographer.
Laboratory convenors: Agnese Bankovska (University of Helsinki) and Karīna Vasiļevska-Das (UC Berkeley/UC San Francisco).
Photographer: Katrīna Ķepule
