Event 1

1/5: FERTILIZE | Baking rieska at Kalasatama

5th of September, 3 pm- 6 pm | Container square at Helsinki’s old harbour Kalasatama

The first event’s main purpose was to gain attention, make people interested, and create a starting point of a growing network. Therefore, the location and concept of the event had to refer strongly to the contents important to this project: locality, participation, happening, tradition, ritual, culture, food, art, and design.

The revival of traditional local cultural knowledge stood in focus of the first event; of how to bake rieska, a Finnish flat bread found in numerous different variations all over the country. With bread history starting with flat breads, before the discovery of raising agents such as sourdough, yeast and baking soda, the event series should also start with the very first and primitive bread type.
Another purpose of the event was to reinterpret and update traditional recipes, knowledge and proverbs, in order to not only remember forgotten techniques and proliferations, but also to integrate them into present culture. Therefore, I asked people to bring one old, found, or self-invented rieska recipe with them. In reference to old Finnish bread proverbs, I provided stamps with words taken out of them translated mainly to English to keep the nature of the event open for people from different cultures. These words could be assembled in new ways and therefore receive new contexts and meanings.

Around 20 people from different nations (Brazil, Portugal, France, Germany, Canada, Finland, Scotland, and Hongkong) participated in the event. Some people brought recipes, others invented new mixtures out of the available ingredients. A great start in the series of events; thanks to all the participants! (which you can check out here)