A mobile bakery inviting communities to participate on a collective and symbolic act: to bake bread in public space.

Proyecto Amasandería Nacional (2016)

Barrio Yungay, Santiago, Chile

Collaborators:

Catalina Pollak Williamson + Workshop Latitud Sur 2016, Facultad Arquitectura Arte Diseño, Universidad Diego Portales.

Comissioned by:

Simmens-Stiftung Foundation and the Chilean Ministry of Culture as part of the ‘Changing Spaces’ public art project.

Photo credits:

Nicole Diaz

Exhibitions:

XX Bienal de Architectura y Urbanism ‘Dialogos Impostergables’. Valparaiso, Chile (2017).

Proyecto Amasandería Nacional (P | A | N) is a mobile bakery that travels the streets of Barrio Yungay (Santiago, Chile) inviting the local and newly arrived communities to participate on a collective and symbolic act: to bake bread in public space.

Part urban performance and part ethnographic machine, P | A | N uses the process of bread-making -in its universal simplicity and cultural density- as a vehicle for social integration within a neighbourhood facing the dynamic interactions and sometimes tensions brought by cultural diversity. The project seeks to promote an inclusive space for participation and play where to address the complex socio-cultural processes happening in Barrio Yungay by creating spaces of ‘encounter’ and exchange for recognising and celebrating the different cultural identities coexisting in the neighbourhood.

A typical baker's tricycle modified to transport a traditional clay oven along other documentation devices, travelled a total of 20 kms during the 10-day intervention, baking more than 75 kilos of bread and collecting a total of 287 recipes from participants. The documented recipes allowed for the collection of oral histories which give an account of the rich cultural diversity that exists today in Yungay.