WET ZONES KITCHEN - STUDIO RIZOMA
In June 2023, we were invited by Studio Rizoma to the opening of Eliza Collin's WET ZONES kitchen, in the framework of Between Land and Sea festival, which took place on the beach next to the Ecomuseum and the Oreto river in Palermo. WET ZONES is a kitchen prototype that confronts a not-so-distant future where localized water recycling presents a solution that allows for this finite resource's regulated consumption, disposal and reclamation. The gathering brought together participants of the past editions of School of Water Scarcity, a multi-disciplinary research project examining water management and farming practices while connecting them to a broader cultural discourse.
As a guest we were asked to bring an ingredient that is related to water scarcity which we used to collectively cook with fellow guests, such as Rafram Chaddad, Luca and Fabio from Aterraterra and Francesco from Greencode Farm.
Building on our research during the creation of BROUDOU #2, we decided to bring olive oil from Olea Kotti, an olive farmer and oil producer from the region of Sousse in Tunisia.
Olea Kotti’s olives are picked, transported and crushed the same day cold and without adding water, respecting good manufacturing and hygiene practices. All olives that they press are local varieties and are pressed as monovarietal oils. We brought an oil obtained from Sayeli olives, a variety found mostly in the North of Tunisia and rarely found and sold as monovarietal oil since it is not commonly cultivated on a large scale. This oil, when unmixed, can produce notes of raspberry and passion fruit, lacks bitterness yet has a pungent kick. Olea Kotti grow their Sayeli in the Siliana district, they are early harvest olives and require no additional irrigation to rain water (Bali). Unfortunately due to extended periods of drought many farmers who have been cultivating Bali varieties for decades find themselves forced to install drip irrigation systems or to water their trees more frequently. Access to water is becoming more and more challenging as large scale farmers, some of which cultivate varieties that require regular irrigation, drill very deep wells, making it harder for the more shallow wells of small scale farmers to fill up.
Initiated with the financial support of Goethe-Institut Tunesien