Fall/Winter Issue - What Liberty Ate Magazine (#7)

F/ W • 7 • F O OD W I T H LOV E • I N DE P E N DE NT M AG A Z I N E

1

2

3 F A L L I N S P I R AT I O N

FAC EBOOK www.facebook.com/whatlibertyate

C ONTAC T contact@gabrielaiancu.com 4

W H AT L I B E R T Y AT E . C O M / M A G A Z I N E

Š Copyright 2014 What Liberty Ate Magazine All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording and/or otherwise without the prior written permission of the editor. This publication can be shared online via its active link and can be embedded on websites and/or blogs which have non- commercial means, as stated and protected by the copyright law. All photographs presented in this issue have been used with the consent of their authors and can not be used without prior author's permission. To use any photograph presented in this issue, please enquire at contact@whatlibertyate.com. Magazine's contributors are responsible for the content of their articles. First publishing of 7th issue - December 2014.

Printed in the United States of America Publication designed by Gabriela Iancu Cover photograph and styling by Gabriela Iancu Pattern design by Gabriela Iancu

GABRIELA IANCU Editor in Chief and Creative Director www.gabrielaiancu.com

MIHAELA CRISTEA Contributing Writer

ALINA EUGENIA TIŢA Contributing Writer

MY NGUYỄN Graphic Designer

OANA PISCUREANU Illustrator www.oanapiscureanu.com

5

6

editorial - 7 reading mix - 9 scones with fruit - 13 butternut squash soup with miso & coconut - 17 gnudi - 19 holiday pie - 21 reading barbara kruger meanings and interpretations - 23 breakfast palmiers with orange zest and chai spices - 31 creamy toast with poached eggs and veggies - 33 fried rice with pork, zucchini and pomegranate - 35 curated view - 39 baked beans with sausage - 43 rice beef ragout with beans, salsa and guacamole - 45 white cake - 47 reading mix - 49 common notes - 53

7

8

My work captures reflections on how to feel at home in the world.

B

etween 2011 and today, this magazine has been a companion curated to celebrate meaningful memories, a sense of well-being and belonging to the world around us. I wanted to make you gasp with delight, to remind

you the desire of connection to one another and ride this journey together.

With this new volume, I want to further incite to a sublime meditation on

how to find ourselves by getting lost in the unknown. Let’s forget our resistance to it, and be sensitive to that something that makes us truly long.

An object of desire, this magazine now brings a cherished perspective over

arts with the newest literature summaries and art essays; the sensational imagery will bring closer to you horizons of new experiences, of life. The aesthetic sense this volume has taken intents to inspire to the universality of the human condition. It inspires to a rhythm, to a transformation towards self-expression and to relaxation.

I feel proud to have had pursued my creative dreams, and this magazine

has been all this time a big dream on which I continued to work on. There was no reason for this magazine to exist other than, as with the arts, because I really wanted to. Today, after four years, its graduation feels close, and surely will be another step in questioning, redefining and challenging the next art of my own. The next step will be to start from nothing and make my creative obsessions be truly mine. •

9

10

Kitchen Literacy, How We Lost Knowledge of Where Foods Come From and Why We Need to Get It Back

I

n Kitchen Literacy, Ann Vileisis is investigating the origins of the modern foods and how humanity has lost knowledge and connection with what we eat. In the chapter “Missing Stories”, she

points out that by losing our everyday intimate relation we have with foods, we have perpetuated a comportment of ignorance as the norm of the modern culture. This cognitive shift has changed not only the knowledge but also the experience of eating. As we don’t raise and produce foods anymore, the idea that the foods must be appealing has been induced to us over the course of the last centuries.

In chapters “A Meal by Martha” and “A New Longing for Nature”, Vileisis is looking to

history in order to understand how we lost our intimate connection with foods, land and nature, and acquired an industrialized mental framework. In the eighteenth-century kitchen, Americans had awareness about what they ate, knowing intimate details and having traditional knowledge about their foods. Through the diary of a eighteenth-century woman, Martha Ballard, Vileisis is exploring the day-to-day work that was done to feed a family. Thus, Vileisis is examining from a historical perspective the naturalness of foods and the human connection to nature. Humanity has transited hereby from a deep awareness to a blissful ignorance and anonymity of what’s on the dinner table. • FIND IT ☞ Vileisis, Ann. Kitchen Literacy, How We Lost Knowledge of Where Foods Come From and Why We Need to Get It Back. Washington: Island Press/Shearwater Books, 2008.

11

&

Mythologies

I

n Mythologies, Barthes is investigating cultural associations with certain terms of linguistics. In the essay “The Romans in Films”, Barthes is reflecting on the signifiers of Roman characters in Mankiewicz’s

film, Julius Caesar.

The film reveals for him a poor representation of ancient times, a representation done through a

western perspective, where the signs take different manifestations. He claims that the idea of a film with historical context is driven by spectacle, where the representation is perpetuated on the basis of myth.

12

Here, the myth is a language which denotes an associated fictional part and an universal truth.

Thus, Barthes revises signs that carry obviousness (curly hair, togas, sweat) of ideological representation of Romanness. Barthes is exposing the myth as a cultural product that is immersed in reality and artifice. •

FIND IT ☞ Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. Translated by Annette Lavers.

New York: Noonday Press/ Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1991.

Literature Summaries and Photography by Gabriela Iancu Model - Irina Udrescu / Makeup Artist – Camelia Diaconescu / Hair Stylist – Larisa Bodislav / Stylist – Iustina Ciortan

13

14

Wa tc h th e fi lm : v i m eo . c o m / g a br i ela i a n c u /dea r - h o m e

15

16

SCONES frui t with

(makes 10 p

ieces)

Recipe and Photography by GABRIELA IANCU | Design by MY NGUYáť„N

Ingredients 1 egg 1 1/3 cup (280 g) all-purpose flour 1/4 cup (60 g) cold butter cut in cubes 1/4 cup (40 g) sugar 1/2 cup (50 g) fresh, dried or frozen fruits (berries, raisins, etc) 3/4 cup (160 g) light cream (and some extra for brushing the scones) 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 pinch salt

directions

1. Preheat the oven to 475°F (220°C). In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and the salt, then mix. Add the butter, then rub in with your fingers until the mix looks like fine crumbs. Add the fruits and stir.

2. In a small bowl whisk the egg with sugar and when combined pour in the light cream Stir well.

3. Make a well in the center of the dry mix, then add the cream mixture and combine. Knead gently until smooth (don’t knead dough too much or scones will be tough).

4. Scatter some flour onto the work surface and roll the dough into a round about 1.5 inch (4 cm) deep. Using a round cutter, cut out 10 rounds and repeat until you have all scones. Use the leftover dough to cut out more scones as needed. Place the scones onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Brush the scones with the extra light cream and bake for 14 minutes. Serve with hot tea or coffee. •

17 17

18 18

Recipe and Photography by GABRIELA IANCU | Design by MY NGUYỄN

BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP with

Miso & Coconut Ingredients (makes 6-8 servings) · Olive oil · 4½ cups water · 4 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon white shiro miso · 1 large yellow onion, diced · 1-inch knob of ginger, peeled and grated · 2½ teaspoons cumin

· ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper, or slightly more to taste · One 3-pound butternut squash, peeled and cut into ½-inch cubes · ½ cup full-fat coconut milk · 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste 19

3

Directions

1. Put 4 cups of water into a saucepan and heat to a simmer. Whisk the remaining 1/2 cup of water together with the miso, and pour that into the saucepan. Bring to a simmer, but don’t let it boil.

2. Pour a few tablespoons of olive oil into the bottom of a large, heavy pot. Sauté the onion until it is translucent.

Stir in the ginger, cumin, and cayenne, and toast spices for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Deglaze with a ladle-full of your miso stock.

3. Add the cubed butternut

squash and the salt, mixing everything to combine, and then pour in the rest of the miso stock. Simmer until the squash is completely tender, about 20 minutes.

4. Turn off the heat, and purée the soup in a food processor or with a hand blender, being careful of the hot liquid.

5. Return the puréed soup back to the pot, and stir in the coconut milk. Taste, adjust for seasoning and spice.

Serve warm, with bread on the side. •

20

MAKES 2 SERVINGS

1 egg 1 handful of basil 1 handful of parsley 1 garlic clove, minced 1/4 cup (50 ml) olive oil 1 cup (200 g) fresh ricotta 1 cup (100 g) gouda, finely grated 4 tablespoons plain flour Semolina flour, for dusting 2 tablespoons butter 2 teaspoons lemon zest 2 tablespoons parmigiano, to serve basil leaves, to serve

1. Using a food processor or a hand held blender, purée the basil, parsley and garlic. Add the olive oil, season lightly with salt and pepper and stir to combine. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, mix ricotta, gouda, herb mix, eggs, and whisk until light and airy.

3. Incorporate the flour into the ricotta mixture.

You can add a little more if you think it might be too sticky. Don’t over do it, it needs to be soft and moist.

4. Fill a piping bag with the mixture and pipe long strips of gnudi. Cut small pieces and sprinkle with semolina flour.

5. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a pan over a low

heat and add a few basil leaves. Cook for 1–2 minutes, until the butter starts to bubble and the leaves start to crisp up. Finely grate in the zest of the lemon and season well. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

5. Cook gnudi in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until cooked through and tender, about 1 minute.

6. Remove gnudi with a slotted spoon and divide them between bowls. Drizzle with lemon butter sauce and serve warm with more parmigiano on top and basil leaves. • RECIPE AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY GABRIELA IANCU

21

21

22

Recipe and Photography by GABRIELA IANCU | Design by MY NGUYỄN

2 cups (200 g) Smoked Sausage, sliced 1/2 cup (50 g) Smoked Bacon, lardon 2 Carrots, sliced 6 Potatoes, sliced 1/2 cup (50 g) Celery Root, sliced 1 tablespoon Sour Cream 1 tablespoon Butter 1/4 cup (50 ml) Milk 1 cup (200 g) Spinach 1 White Onion 1 Red Onion 6 Garlic Cloves Minced Thyme Cumin Seeds 1 teaspoon Turmeric 1 cup (100 g) Grated Gouda Salt, Pepper

1. Bring to boil a medium-sized pan filled with salted water and boil the potatoes, carrots and celery until tender. Filter the water and set aside. Mash the vegetables with butter, cream and milk until smooth and creamy. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

2. Fry the sausage until lightly crisp and set aside.

Sauté the red onion and garlic, then add the bacon and cook until crispy. Set aside.

3. Toast spices (cumin, thyme, turmeric) for 30 seconds, the add the white onion and sauté until it’s translucent. Add the spinach and cook until it becomes tender. Set aside.

4. In a loaf pan brushed with vegetable oil, layer the mash, spinach, cheese, sausage, bacon and onion.

Season lightly with salt and pepper and bake for 15 minutes at 356°F (180°C). Serve warm with gravy. • RECIPE AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY GABRIELA IANCU

23 23

THE ART READINGS

READING

KRUGER:

MEANINGS AND INTERPRETATIONS

24

AN ESSAY BY

GABRIELA IANCU

Barbara Kruger—a media-conscious artist employing language and images, art and pop culture, into visual

objects full of dark and real essence—describes her work as a production of pictures and words that “visually record

the collision between our bodies, and the days and nights which construct and contain them. I am trying to interrupt the stunned silences of the image with the uncouth impertinences and uncool embarrassments of language”.1

Kruger's words overlap on the disillusion of image representation and bring in the precision of reality's

issues. Her language is subtle and persuasive, requesting the viewer to search for meanings and implications outside the physical vernacular of the work of art. Kruger's artistic practice uses text and images to attack assumptions of

power, and its uses in stories of the world. Her work affects the spectator through the contraction and distemper produced against the manipulation of the mass communications on spectator's identity. Kruger is questioning the inequities she finds in the everyday, and finally is integrating her practice in the social space—a cohabitation of the art and public world. She creates thus a new type of spectator, that is allowed to question the consuming culture, to represent himself, and take pleasure in giving own meaning to the world.

Throughout Kruger's artistic practice, we see her intention of reformulating the very notion of art, an inten-

tion resting on the idea of spectatorial art in the social space, driven by power and money. By creating a representa-

tion of “a place which allows for differences and tolerances”,2 she hopes to construct a new kind of spectator, who has

not been seduced and who could take the lead of representing himself in a social relation. A spectator that could be

interested in the pleasure of the image, a pleasure that “comes from giving meaning to things”.3 Using stereotypes and

appropriation, Kruger is questioning the culture-consuming public, by using the symbolic message as a reflection

on the identity that has been induced to us. Exactly as in the marketplace, Kruger’s objects of art are constructed to convey commentary, to dialogue, to introduce doubt and need. The viewer gets a message with no final closure, from a body of knowledge with which he is familiar, where the meaning’s intensity is up to his own articulation. But how

valid is Kruger’s transitional language to dominate the representation and ideology of humanity? In her work, the resistance between the words and images is creating powerful connections within the mind of the viewer: it stays

with the viewer, it strikes and raises questions to be understood, and leaves space for interpretation. Ultimately, her

art is a satire on the ideology that has been formed around identity, power and exchange, an art of meaning, pleasure, and representation.

The beginnings of Kruger’s new work lie in 1970, when she started to create crocheted and sewn hangings

inspired by the handcraft of women’s textile works, and continued with poetry and large-scale pieces composed of paint, ribbons and metallic powders with interlocking forms. She spent a few years to define her methodology and identity as artist, a time when she found particular inspiration in the writings of Roland Barthes and Walter

Benjamin. Thus, by 1978 Kruger shifted her work into the conceptual realm, producing photographs of exteriors of residential buildings, presented in single images alongside a panel of text. However, by 1979, she started creating a 1 Ann Goldstein, Rosalyn Deutsche, Barbara Kruger, Whitney Museum of American Art, and Museum of Contemporary Art, Barbara Kruger, (Los Angeles,

CA; Cambridge, Mass: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1999), 35 2 W. J. T. Mitchell and Barbara Kruger, An Interview with Barbara Kruger, Critical Inquiry 17, no. 2 (The University of Chicago Press, 1991), : 434-448, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1343844 3 Masako Kamimura, “Barbara Kruger: Art of Representation”, review of We Won’t Play Nature to Your Culture, Woman’s Art Journal 8, no. 1 (Woman’s Art

Inc., 1987), : 40-43, 40, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1358339

25 25

new art by employing found images, mostly from mid-20th century American print-media sources, with superim-

posed text onto them. Changing her practice from taking the photographs to appropriating, by re-photographing black-and-white images, superimposing typeface in Futura Bold, helped emptying the meanings of the images and constructed finally her consistent signature.4

Kruger’s first ideological artistic discourse started with minimal photography taken by her, next to which she

would present panels of text. Thus, her first fully realized photo-and-text series entitled Pictures/Readings was about

the residential architecture of Berkeley, Los Angeles and Deerfield Beach, Florida. This combination of personal monologue and photographs that speak of a certain likeness of the place for Kruger, and of an accumulation of everyday experiences. She was thus interested in looking closely at those buildings that lacked visual grace. Her main interest

seems to be the windows with their closed curtains, like a refusal to be seen, discovered. The architecture reveals as

cold, modern, in a sort of confusing international style, where only the palm trees speak of a bright clime of Florida or California. The viewer is looking at these surroundings with the same perspective as Kruger; and what they see is an anonymous place that seems somehow familiar, that is becoming more distinct because of the vegetation around, and not because of the architecture.

However, no matter how unremarkable these buildings are, the spectator as well as the operator, are not

welcomed inside; they remain simply passers-by. While these places stand out for their sunny climates that might imply charm and beauty, Kruger was instead looking for subjects that lack geometric rhythm and texture.5 She was 26 26

looking for those kinds of subjects that no one wanted to produce: “a dialectic between the empirical fact of architecture as a kind of stage set and the social interactions and private reveries that might occur within its walls”.6 Pictures/

Readings, defines thus how spaces have the power to shape us. Looking closely at the social space through the architecture of banal houses, we see how space constructs and contains our experiences—unspoken stories, expectations,

doubts, differences, fantasies. The repetitive nature of the series highlights the routine of life and the seriality of page turning as in a magazine.7 The text has a communicative point of view, and recounts imagined stories of imagined

inhabitants. Stories are different, readable for anyone, and interpretable. The photographs seem to exist only in relation to these invented stories. Kruger’s Picture/Readings experiences certainly are an early synthesis, soon to bloom,

of what it would become her signature style—a style inspired by cinema and television’s characteristics of an image

construction. Placing images in close relationship with the text made her first mature act Picture/Readings, a “borderline between iconic and verbal text”.8

However, soon Kruger started to create work that would know no binaries, breaking any boundary between

the fine art world and the public art, creating an art that’s inhabiting a common social space. This new territory becomes the space where the implications and interpretations of mass communication can be revealed to the new

spectator. Her professional graphic design training is fully reclaimed once with the settle of her stylistic method. She

4 Goldstein, 141-142 5 Ibid., 143 6 Ibid.

7 Ibid., 190 8 Angela Vettese, Paolo Fabbri, Marco Pierini, and Palazzo delle Papesse, Centro Arte Contemporanea, Barbara Kruger, (Siena: Palazzo delle Papesse, Centro

Arte Contemporanea, 2002), 20

says: “I did work in magazines for years, and it’s where I learned the fluency that I work in, but not the meaning of what I’m doing. I changed the meaning. The formal fluency—[…] certainly in the use of image and text—came from that job every day”.9 Kruger’s work seems conversational being constructed around representation, ideology, and subjectivity with dialogues between “I”, “you” and “us”.10

Her observation was that the modern marketplace has conquered our sense of perception, because of the

commercial sphere that has changed the entire mode of existence of humanity. Thus, her creation of objects is framing the commercial communication and the marketplace itself, and is standing for the self-constructiveness of identity.

Although she often uses women’s image as the focus, her work is not necessarily constructed around gender, however

certain types of work she did speak more naturally of the message intended to a certain audience. Throughout her

practice, she engages to destroying a certain order of representation, a mission that assumes “[...] a political displacement of the traditional/dominant mode of representation, a task she accomplishes through reappropriation—the

radical and critical transformation of someone else’s image”.11 Kruger is using stereotypes and appropriation, because she considers them as an “integral part of the social processes of exclusion and domination, and therefore as a

weapon, an instrument of power”.12 She commits to justify the artistic act with the exposure of the stereotype, as the

primary instrument of great impact, in the form of slogans “that fit easily into existing institutions and identities.”13

Her exchange of shared meanings forces the viewer to acknowledge the distinctive traits of her dramatic work. This new spectator has the capacity “to realize and question the difference, does not settle for reading them without glimpsing the depth of their evidence”.14

Kruger’s remarkable ability to bring nuances of language and experiences into perfect combination with

images has made her art speak from her subjective angle and produce something of a freedom of opinion. Thus, Kruger’s work cohabits the public and art world in a natural evolution that transports and releases the space of meaning

into the world. The immediate impact is on the spectator’s behavior, the act of exhibiting writings in the public space,

allows the reading of a deciphered message. Public space requires also a different attention from the spectator: he has to consider his surroundings, and choose whether or not to become a participant, and whether or not to identity with the message. Thus, she transforms the essence of art itself when using the exploration of graphic design as an object of art to be exhibited in public and gallery spaces. Her unusual combinatorial medium—verbal and visual— has put commercial art and fine art together, by communicating ideas in the same way as advertising and marketing

would do. The intent was to make art democratic, giving opportunity to the “audience to consume social and cultural dynamics that in other art might be more inaccessible”.15

Kruger has drawn an important experience from the multiple artistic activities she was exposed to before

reaching her mature style. These activities helped her to consolidate her practice with a “multiplicity of sites and

9 Cedar Pasori, Interview: Barbara Kruger Talks Her New Installation And Art In The Digital Age, (2012), http://www.complex.com/art-design/2012/08/ interview-barbara-kruger-talks-her-new-installation-and-art-in-thedigital-age/page/3 10 Éliane Elmaleh, La Politique du malaise dans les photomontages de Barbara Kruger, E-rea 10.2, (2013), http://erea.revues.org/3015 11 Kamimura, 40 12 Elmaleh 13 Ibid.

14 Vettese, 31 15 Goldstein, 114

27 27

meanings”,16 displacing the spectator’s fixed position. Neither in Pictures/Readings nor in her photocollage works, she

is looking for aestheticized subjects, but rather for vernacular that seduces, sharing visual forms of alternative media in organized compositions. While using universal expression in both of these two types of work, Kruger “attempt[s] to show how signs and cultural representations may be active at the source of cultural subjection and ideological control by political and economic power, not only of the individual, but of the entire social body”.17

In the untitled image from Pictures/Readings, Kruger provides a play on the public and private reality, forcing

the exposure of the privacy with an imaginary story: “They were tired of the house so they hired some neighborhood boys to board it up and make sure all was secure. He was 18 and figured it was a good way to make a few bucks. He brought Francine along because they were going to the movies later and she thought she’d sit on the sand until he

finished work. […] She told him that when she was little this used to be her dreamhouse. [...] She would picture herself inside making breakfast”.18 This speculative narrative becomes the expression and the face of the characters in the

story, a narrative that can be only written and not represented. What is visible becomes too quick object of desire, but

the meaning can create reflexive attitudes. This selective message is inviting the viewer to enter a space that is at the

same time public, and private. Even if an imaginary story is provided, the viewer can still reconstruct in his own way the allusive space of the house.

28 28

In Untitled (You Are Not Yourself), Kruger is not asking the viewer to transcend in order to understand the

work, but to create an allusion of affection. The phrase “You Are Not Yourself” seems an allusive invitation to the spectator to attribute meaning. Kruger’s words are naturally folding a collective expression and content, creating a punctum in the space between body and thought this speculative meaning produces on the spectator. Kruger’s

photocollage works have a contradictory combination of images and words to create independent relations between tone and value. Kruger is playing against the modern American culture with the conventional image of perfection and

disillusion, and words that are almost like teasers. Punctum—the intense, unexpected meaning that strikes the spectator and holds his gaze in a private recognizable memory—would demand viewer’s participation and interpretation.

“You are not yourself” seems like a disturbing and good sense acknowledgment, pointing to a intimate relationship

between “you” and “I”. “I” the viewer that feels like my conscious speaks to me, “you” the spectator that acknowledges the manipulation of your identity. This antithetic phrase with dramatic tonality remembers authoritatively that there has to be an opposition to the conventional mass communication power.

Kruger’s practice in both Pictures/Readings and photocollage works, questions consistently the perception

of the viewer, engages and confronts him: “She stages for the viewer the techniques whereby the stereotype produces subjection, interpellates him/her as subject. […] in Kruger’s double inversion, the viewer is led ultimately to reject the work’s address, this double postulation, this contradictory construction”.19 Kruger is removing the subject matter

from its contextual home: in Pictures/Readings the exteriors of the houses she photographs acquire soon other sto16

17 18 19

Ana Balona de Oliveira, Jam life into death: The “cold war” of the stereotype and the “ethics of failure” in the art of Barbara Kruger. Third Text 23, no.6 (2009): 751-761, 751, http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09528820903371164 de Oliveira, 754 Goldstein, 151 Goldstein, 36

ries with her monologue; in photocollage works she displaces again the subject, and uses an image that will be anyway

forgotten, but which gets to be the perfect base for her slogan. Her assertive commentary is imaginative, but strongly rooted in the consumerist system. Her text unifies and mimics of the symbolic circulation of the fake identity. Either in form of panels of text next to an image, as in Pictures/Readings, or superimposed as into her Futura Bold type works,

her power is omnipresent and strategically placed to make people consume social and cultural art. In both cases, she removes the words and image representation from their natural position, establishing visual differences related to failure, inadequacy and derision.20

In her photocollage work, the images she combines with text have a disturbing aspect, and the confronta-

tional text brings doubts to the ideology that we have been fed by mass communication. Her distant psychological ob-

servations are reflections on human dilemmas. For Kruger, the reason for using images and text is tied to the specific power that defines who we are and who we aren’t.21 She is trying to bring the authentic side of our culture into art,

leaving behind the utopia of the commercial media. Kruger’s work poses questions, but delivers pleasure for both her and others. As she addresses in different ways the issues of identity, her artistic discourse characterizes the experi-

ence of the world. Her experimentation and expression takes place gradually as she decodes cultural power relationships.22 Her practice of critical writing seems to be related with the problem of categorization and naming: how does

one constitute art and how does one constitute a public? Life existence is conditioned by exchange. Her work has been

invested with the questioning the differences, constructing “another kind of spectator who has not yet been seen or heard”,23 a spectator that can represent himself and not be represented anymore.

Kruger’s work seems to follow a circuit of independence departing from the art world and going back to the

art world itself, through a circulation of different meanings of her art that compete for spectator’s attention. Using the

language of advertising she reflects on the art system—galleries, museums and publicity—billboards, posters, and on the character of art as commodity. The imposition of text is about the world we live in, but is not about the viewer nor the artist, thus creates a general private and non-subjective experience. •

20 21 22 23

de Oliveira, 759 Mitchell, 438 Ibid., 444 Ibid., 435

29 29

30

31 W I N T E R I N S P I R AT I O N

32

33 33

1 cup (200 g) sugar 2 tablespoons orange zest 1 teaspoon cardamom 1/2 teaspoon cloves 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg pinch of salt 12 oz (340 g) puff pastry, chilled

• Combine sugar, orange zest, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, and salt in a food processor; pulse to combine.

• Sprinkle work surface with this spiced sugar. Place the puff pastry on top and roll to a rectangle, continually sprinkling with additional sugar to prevent the dough from sticking.

• Sprinkle spiced sugar over rectangle,

pressing sugar into dough with rolling pin.

• Roll each long end to the center of the pastry, making sure to roll tightly and evenly. Freeze rolled log for 20 minutes, until very firm but not frozen. Slice crosswise and sprinkle tops with spiced sugar.

• Preheat oven to 450°F (230°C). Bake palmiers 10 to 12 minutes, until caramelized on the top. Carefully flip with a spatula, pressing down to flatten if palmiers begin to unroll. Continue baking another 4 to 6 minutes, until golden and crisp. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely. • RECIPE AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY GABRIELA IANCU

34

Recipe and Photography by GABRIELA IANCU | Design by MY NGUYỄN

Creamy Toast with

Poached Eggs and Veggies Ingredients (makes 2 servings) 2 eggs 4 rye bread sliced, toasted a handful of french beans 2 big mushrooms of your choice, sliced 4 slices of Brique de chèvre 2 teaspoons white vinegar extra-virgin olive oil parmigiano to serve thyme, salt and pepper to taste

Directions 1. Fill a saucepan with water. Add 1 teaspoon salt and 2 teaspoons white vinegar and bring to a simmer over medium heat.

2. Crack 1 egg into a small bowl. Place the bowl close to the surface of the hot water and gently slip the egg into the water.

3. Turn off the heat, cover the pan and set your timer for 5 minutes. Remove the egg with a slotted spoon and serve immediately. Repeat with the other egg.

4. Meantime, in a preheated skillet sauté the beans and mushrooms until golden. Season with salt, pepper and thyme. Set aside.

5. Spread the Brique cheese on toast, top with beans, mushrooms and the poached egg. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle grated parmigiano on top. Serve warm. •

35

36

37

w i th

pork ,

zucch in i

and

p o m eg ra n ate

38

2 tablespoons olive oil 1/2 cup sliced onion 1 teaspoon minced garlic 1 1/2 cups grated zucchini 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder 1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds 1/4 teaspoon thyme salt and pepper to taste 1 cup cooked rice 2 cups cooked pork shoulder pomegranate seeds, to serve

1. Heat a skillet over medium heat.

Add olive oil; swirl. Add spices and cook for 1 minute. Next, add onion and saute 1 minute. Add zucchini and stir-fry 5 minutes. Add rice; stir-fry 1 minute. Stir in pork and season to taste. Serve with pomegranate seeds. recipe and photography by gabriela iancu

39 39

THE CURATED VIEW

40

TEXT by MIHAELA CRISTEA DESIGN by GABRIELA IANCU

41

Throughout history, the woman has been a mysterious element, fascinating for men, and an inexhaustible source of inspiration for the arts world. The woman has held different statuses, going from deity or queen to inferior human being, witch, servant, slave and so on, ranks according to the degree of social and economic development of the collectivity. This oscillation and ambiguity regarding the woman’s status in society suggests multiple qualities of women, which brought them appreciation but also disapproval of the people. The contemporary perception of the role of women in society developed just last century, following-up the increased social revolutions, insurgences and protests for the rights and equality between women and men.

42

C

oncerning the relationship between the

world, to create art that reflects the true life expe-

one can distinguish several phases. Briefly,

in modern history. The feminist revolution origi-

arts and the historical feminist movements,

at global scale, the most important movement and

the one that opened the way for ulterior changes, is the fight of the women for their legal rights, free marriage, the right to vote, the right for property. It

must be said that these are some of the most impor-

tant rights of the nowadays individual. Afterwards, other issues were brought to attention, such as

gender ethics, discrimination and exploitation of the female imagery. Art became a social instrument

to disseminate information, make a statement, and a weapon to fight for the liberty to choose to be an artist, to be accepted and appreciated in a masculine

rience of a woman, generating radical changes nated in the U.S.A., a country in which the feminist

artists Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro founded in Carolina Institute of the Arts, the Feminist Art

Program in the 1970s. The development of performance, video-art and other new media allowed a

cultural revolution, using as means of expression the

body. The artworks and their aesthetics are varied,

but the objectives are wide: the aggressive art of The Guerrilla Girls, the conceptual art of Barbara Kruger,

the performances of Marina Abramovic, and so many others.

One of the most known figures of feminist

was underquoted and therefore, not appreciated.

the Est-Europe (Serbia). Due to the faulty rela-

literally in the 1990, and by a very small group of

art remains Marina Abramovic, originary from tionship between the East and the West, only few Eastern names were known to the West, and even

lesser were females. Abramovic moved in 1976 to

Amsterdam and her career started to burst. Worth

to mention is also the important artistic activity of the Croat female artist Sonja Ivekovic (Croatia), Ewa Partum and Natalia LL (Poland).

In the East Europe, the social and politic

conditions to develop a healthy, original cultural

revolution were brought to none. The communism

that ruled the countries closed all gates to democracy and personal liberty. In Romania, the situa-

tion was even more tragic, because this country

was isolated and there was almost no communication with the Western world . Even after 1989, the 1

slow westernization of the country and the financial dependence of it, separated and put aside a

society that suffered a massive cultural decay for more than 40 years. There was not a true femi-

nist discourse2 and no curators that can conceive

curatorial politics. The art produced in Romania 1

2

In Hungary, Poland or Czeck Republick the regime was lighter and some of the experiment groups such as EXAT 51, Zagreb, OHO, JUNIJ, or the Polish poster school were allowed to express.

It was hard to do that considering the fact that the socialist realism was based on equality of all members of its society.

The feminism as artistic movement was assumed Romanian artists, among which Marilena Preda

Sânc. The first international project with feminist

specifics happened just in 2013, at the Museum for Contemporary Arts in Bucharest, the exhibition

Good Girls being accompanied by an international

symposium. In the last decade, the Romanian

artists related mostly to the international scene of arts, trying to recover the gap created by the politic regime. Some of the artists have an impres-

sive growth and many collectors turn their eyes towards them. It’s true that female-artists are still

few but they gained recognition and the arts scene is looking for equilibrium.

Even though the female-artists were long

time ignored, gradually they gained autonomy and explored in an original way major themes,

such as artistic identity, gender, equality, sexuality, succeeding to create an image of a capable

contemporary artist and complex, deleting gender limits in the arts. •

43

44

LET THE OVEN DO THE WORK!

makes 4 servings 4 pork sausage links 1/4 cup (50 g) smoked bacon, lardon 2 cups (400 g) tin of kidney beans 1/2 cup (100 ml) passata 1/4 cup (50 ml) red wine 1/2 red pepper, sliced 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 red onion 1 bay leaf 1 teaspoon thyme 1 teaspoon oregano 1 teaspoon chilli powder 1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1. Preheat the oven to 380°F (190°C). In a skillet on medium heat, sauté the onion with chilli powder, cumin, thyme, and oregano. Cook for 5 minutes, until onion is translucedent, then add the minced garlic, stir and continue cooking for 5 minutes more.

2. Pour the passata into the skillet, add the wine and the beans amd stir well.

Simmer for 10 minutes then transfer into a deep baking tray. Season lightly with salt and pepper, add the bay leaft in the tray, sprinkle the bacon lardons, add the sausage and stir well. Bake for 45 minutes or until the sausages are golden and crisp. Serve with mashed potatoes, rice or polenta. • RECIPE AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY GABRIELA IANCU

45 45

46

RICE BEEF

WITH BEANS, SALSA AND GUACAMOLE makes 4 servings 4 TABLESPOONS CUP OLIVE OIL 1 POUND (500 G) BEEF CHUCK STEAK, CUT INTO 5CM CHUNKS 4 ESCHALOTS, HALVED 2 GARLIC CLOVES, MINCED 2 CARROTS, THICKLY SLICED 2 CELERY STALKS, THICKLY SLICED 3 FRESH THYME SPRIGS 2 FRESH ROSEMARY SPRIGS 2 DRIED BAY LEAVES 1 CUP DRY RED WINE 2 TABLESPOONS TOMATO PASTE 2 X 2 cups (400 G) CANS DICED TOMATOES 1 CUP STOCK BEEF 4 SMALL RED CHILLIES, HALVED LENGTHWAYS rice, beans, red onion, cheese and guacamole to serve 1. Preheat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Season beef with salt and pepper. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes or until browned all over. Set aside.

2. Add eschalots, garlic, carrot and celery to pan. Cook for 3 minutes or until starting to brown. Add thyme, rosemary and bay leaves. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until fragrant. Add wine. Cook for 2 minutes or until reduced by half. Return beef to pan. Add tomato paste, tomatoes, stock and 1 1/2 cups cold water. Increase heat to high. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cook, covered, for 2 hours or until beef is tender. Stir in chilli. Cook, covered, for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Remove beef from pan reserving sauce to serve on rice and beans.

Roughly shred beef before serving. • RECIPE AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY GABRIELA IANCU

47 47

48

3/4 cup (70 g) white flour 1/4 cup (30 g) spelt flour 1/4 cup (30 g) cornflour 3 eggs, at room temperature 3/4 cup (130 g) caster sugar melted butter, to grease

1/2 cup (150 g) mascarpone 1/2 cup (150 g) ricotta 1/2 cup (100 g) sour cream 2 sheets gelatine 1/2 big grapefruit juice 2 tablespoons sugar

1 papaya 1 dragon fruit 5 strawberries 1 sheet gelatine 2 tablespoons powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 356°F (180°C). Brush an 8 inch (22 cm) cake pan with melted butter to grease and set aside.

2. Sift the combined flours into a bowl. Use an electric beater to beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl for 10-12 minutes or until thick, pale and creamy. Sift half the flour mixture over the egg mixture. Fold until just combined. Repeat with remaining flour mixture.

3. Pour the mixture in the pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden and the cake springs back when lightly tapped. Set aside in the pan for 5 minutes to cool slightly before turning onto wire racks to cool completely.

4. In a big bowl, combine mascarpone, ricotta and sour cream and whisk until soft peaks form. Set aside.

5. Combine sugar and citrus juice in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, stir to dissolve and set aside. Next, add the gelatine sheets previously hidrated in water and whisk until cold.

Add the gelatine mixture to the cheese mixture and stir to combine. Set in the fridge for 30 minute to 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes, until cream starts to harden.

6. Purée the fruits together. Add the gelatine previously hydrated in water and the sugar and stir to combine. Set in the fridge for 30 minute to 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes, until cream starts to harden.

6. Cut the cake lenghtwise in 2 layers. Spread the fruits cream in between the layers. Spread the cheese cream on top of the cake. Refrigerate for 3 hours or over night. Serve with cocoa nibs.• RECIPE AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY GABRIELA IANCU

49 49

50

Towards a Semiotic Biology: Life Is the Action of Signs

T

owards a Semiotic Biology: Life is the Action of Signs presents a series of essays by leading biosemioticians. The authors present a deeper view on life processes from a semiotic view.

In the first chapter, “Why Biosemiotics? An Introduction to Our View on the Biology of Life Itself”,

Kalevi Kull, Claus Emmeche and Jesper Hoffmeyer introduce the differences between the action of sign of the living systems, semiosis, and the study of signs processes, semiotics.

Semiotic biology studies the active systems of sign production, sign mediation and sign

interpretation, emphasizing the properties of relation, signification, wholeness and contex-

tuality. Thus, for Saussure, biosemiotics would provide a meaningful communication in nonhuman sign processes. For Barthes and Sebeok, however, semiotic theory can include human non-verbal signs and animal communication.

Another approach to semiology is structuralism, which analyzes the factors that make

structures while emphasizing the importance of codes and meanings. An analogy between the system of language and the system of biological species is made to demonstrate that structuralism creates relations of similarity and difference between entities. In biosemiotics, the structuralist perspective can be illustrated in the studies of organic form. Ultimately, biosemiotics is the study of semiosis in living nature. •

FIND IT » Kull, Kalevi, and Claus Emmeche. Towards a Semiotic Biology: Life is the Action of Signs.

London: Imperial College Press, 2011.

51

&

Food is Culture

I

n Food is Culture, Massimo Montanari is questioning the relation between the idea of food and the idea of nature. He claims that the association of these two values is inaccurate, since

the naturalness of a food system comes from cultural ideologies and interpretation of nature.

Food is culture because the man creates it (produces it, prepares it and chooses it) in function of symbolic or economical values. Man thus shapes the food by investing it with a human identity.

52

In the chapter “Nature is Culture”, Montanari investigates the relationship of man and

environment through the transition from a hunting economy to an economy of production. The primitive activities are seen as traditional and natural, whereas the industrialized culture sepa-

rates man from nature. Being unable to live in the natural rhythms of the seasons, man has

modified the environment by creating his own space in which to live. Thus, man has artificially created cities and food that were not existing in nature. Bread or wine are foods created by man

which do not exist in nature, but rely on a close observation and selection of plants, and thus

distinguish the identity of animals from that of man. Montanari investigates this culture through an intersection of tradition and innovation. •

FIND IT » Montanari, Massimo. Food is Culture. Translated by Albert Sonnenfeld.

New York: Columbia University Press, 2006.

Literature Summaries by Gabriela Iancu Illustration by Oana Piscureanu

53

ENCOUNTERS

54

COMMON NOTES Connecting

Folk Cultures Through Technology It all started with an e-mail that the museum where I work—the Alexandru Stefulescu Gorj County Museum from Romania—received from the U.S. Bucharest Embassy. Isabella Alexandrescu, the U.S. Embassy Cultural Events Coordinator, sent to most Romanian museums information about the 2014 launch of the Museums Connect program of the American Alliance of Museums, a program subordinated to the U.S. State Department. That e-mail was handed to me by my General Manager, because I was the only one who spoke English fluently, and who could understand what that program was about. Therefore, I read the e-mail and then went to www.aam-us.org to better understand its conditions, phases and structure.

TEXT BY ALINA EUGENIA TIŢA | Illustration by Priyanka Patil

B

eing an Economist at the Accounting and Payroll

and Romanian. However, my U.S. partner thought that a

submitting our museum profile in the Museums

that we should focus on folk music. Folk music is influ-

Department of the museum, I took the task of

Connect program. Museums Connect—Building Global Communities strengthens connections and cultural under-

standing between people in the U.S. and abroad, through innovative projects facilitated by museums and executed by their communities. It is a program that consists in a

tradition project would be too general, expensive, and enced by traditions and the history of people. I thought

Bill's idea was closer to the Museums Connect's principle,

so I quickly agreed. I am a very flexible and open minded person, so I can easily adapt to new things and ideas.

The U.S. partner and I started working on creating

partnership between a U.S. and a non-U.S. museum. In

the project which was called Common Notes—Connecting

museum profile and look for a U.S. partner museum.

people to work with (museum staff, teachers, students,

order to move forward, this program requires to submit a The next step for finding a partner museum was

to send Letters of Intent to potential U.S. museums that I found in the Museums Connect database. One museum

Folk Cultures through Technology. We had to find the right folk music artists), and for one year we worked on shaping

and molding the project to reach the stage of what is today.

At the beginning of the summer, Bill announced

answered me, through its Director of Strategic Innovation

me in an e-mail that we won, he said “pack your bags

the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences from Charleston,

Washington D.C. he told me that I didn’t seem so happy and

and Grants Manager – William Jeffries. That museum was West Virginia. Bill says the way that our museums met and we two met is like a “museum dating- site”, and he is right,

because that is the way this program was created. The partner museums can find themselves online, by getting in contact with each other and agreeing on a project idea.

My initial idea was of a project about traditions—the U.S.

because you are coming to the U.S.A.!”. When we met in enthusiastic in my reply to him, but I told him that “I knew

we will win!”. From the beginning, I had this certainty in me that we will win. His e-mail seemed so natural and it

felt like common knowledge, that is why I was so calm and relaxed about it. I never dreamed I would ever go to

the U.S.A., mainly because I come from a humble family,

55

56

so the thought of visiting this country was so distant to

D.C. and I couldn’t believe I was in the U.S.A. It all seemed

and brought with it so much happiness, a feeling that goes

attended the Museums Connect Colloquium. Here, I met

me. However, this project opened up a new world for me, beyond words.

This year, summer seemed so long to me, even

though I love it and I wish we could have endless summer

in Romania, but this time I couldn’t wait to visit America

and know all about it. September was a busy month for my U.S. partner and I, because he was preparing the first site

surreal to me! I spent three days in Washington and Bill and the rest of the awarded project managers. Bill is a great person and became a good friend to me. I admire him and the work relationship that we have created is

growing. I learned so many things from him, and I am very thankful for it.

Time was short, but I wanted to visit as much

visit of the project, the Charleston visit. On our side it was

as I could of Washington D.C., mostly the National Mall,

work for the visa documents and the visa interviews. I am

impressed me the most was the Washington Monument—

busy as well, because we had to prepare a lot of paperso grateful to the U.S. Embassy staff for helping us with our J-1 visas.

The date of departure approached quickly. On

September 27th 2014, I flew from Sibiu to Washington D.C.

I was equally excited and nervous for traveling alone on such a long distance. I have safely arrived in Washington

known worldwide especially for the White House. What when I got closer to it I felt on top of the world; shivers

went down my spine, and the rest is silence! Just like Brâncuși`s Endless Column, the Washington Monument seems to underline the sky and the earth, and the link between them.

The rest of my team joined soon Bill and I, and

The first site visit of the Common Notes project

we continued the journey by heading to Charleston, West

Notes project. This was a beautiful two weeks visit. We

life. We still keep in touch with our U.S. friends, as a

Virginia, for our first cultural exchange of the Common met the incredible staff at the Clay Center for the Arts and

Sciences with whom we immediately bonded. A natural relationship quickly formed between the U.S. and the Romanian team. We became good friends, and this is an important thing to consider in a project. They took us on

field trips, museum visits, to a marching bands compe-

tition, to meet the West Virginia Governor, and so many other. Music was all around the cultural exchange, because

the folk artists had joined performances—of Appalachian and Oltenian folk music.

During our stay in Charleston we met Adina and

Liviu, two Romanians who live in the U.S.A. and who miss

home. Adina invited us to her house for dinner, and the

next day for a Romanian lunch. She was longing for some Romanian food, therefore she cooked for us a typical

Romanian meal. Her life partner, Wayne, an American, knew so many things about Romania, its culture, food,

places, and this impress me much. It was great to see an American speaking so beautifully about Romania.

The last two days of our trip in the U.S.A. were

spent in Chicago, a city that was breathtaking to me. I very much wanted to see The Cloud Gate aka the Bean, in my

opinion the symbol of Chicago. I still couldn’t believe I was in the U.S.A., and walking on the streets of Chicago felt like being in the movies.

This visit was a great chance for the students who

traveled with me to see what an American high school looks like, and to know the U.S. students and teachers from their partner high school, Wahama High School from Mason County, West Virginia.

ended and we returned to Romania and to our everyday private Google+ community was set—the Common Notes community—and the project work continues. The 50

selected students (25 U.S. and 25 Romanian) and their teachers (2 U.S. and 2 Romanian) continue their work on

creating digital stories on traditions and folk music. This project will allow them to know their cultural identity and to learn about other cultures, all this being possible with

the help of the 21st century technology. They will also

create a digital mash-up, a combination of the two types

of folk music—blue grass and Romanian folk music. This is called non-formal education and will help the students

improve their English skills, make new friends, grow and learn about new cultures.

Everybody was so enthusiastic about this project.

and the energy of it could be felt on both sides. We—the

Romanian team—are looking forward to receiving our U.S. friends in April, 2015, for the second site visit of the project. They will have a great time in Romania—seeing

beautiful places, eating traditional food and getting to know our culture.

Sure, we had challenges in our project because

this is the way life goes, but we tried and will always try our best to overcome them. This project is more important that any obstacle we meet our way. And surely, it has

been a pleasure and a delight to work on the Common Notes project and the work continues with more fun, excitement and friendships! •

57

58

www.facebook.com/whatlibertyate www.whatlibertyate.com

W W W. W H AT L I B E RT YAT E . CO M / M AGA Z I N E