Exhibition Foodprint

The Mediterranean Diet Revisited

FOODPRINT is a photography exhibition and a cross-media project which opens at the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation in Nicosia on 19 January 2023 and which explores, why the Mediterranean Diet is relevant to our lives today.

Connecting Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Morocco and Croatia, the project is based on photographs by five photographers that bring alive this age-old food tradition based on austerity, creativity, sharing and seasonality.

Recognised by UNESCO as part of humanity’s Intangible Heritage due to its unique set of qualities, the Mediterranean Diet consists mostly of plant-based foods, such as vegetables, grains, nuts, legumes and fruits. Born out of poverty, it also provides solutions to some of the most critical problems facing the planet today, such as the loss of biodiversity, food waste and climate change.

The project’s parallel activities, which include photography workshops, educational programmes, cooking events and culinary walks, explore why the Mediterranean Diet has come to be celebrated as one of the world’s richest, healthiest and most sustainable food cultures.

The project is the result of a collaboration between the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, Anemon Productions and the Goethe-Institut in partnership with the Museum of Cycladic Art in Greece, the Fondazione Brescia Musei in Italy, and the Cyprus Food Museum. It is supported by the Creative Europe programme of the EU.

THE PHOTOGRAPHERS

Five award-winning photographers travelled in Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and Croatia, capturing dramatically contrasting images from isolated fishing villages to mountainous hamlets and modern culinary schools, while exploring diverse themes such as sustainability, identity, family, community, cooking, farming, health and creativity.

Their images seek to inspire change and encourage us to connect with the region’s past, which although marked by poverty and hunger, created the world’s healthiest and most sustainable diets.

London-based photographer Elena Heatherwick travelled to the island of Crete to explore the themes of family and culinary heritage. Elena spent time with a family running a small tavern in a remote mountainous region. Three generations participate in the production of food products, such as cheese and vegetables, whilst also collecting seasonal wild plants from the mountains.

German photographer Johann Clausen visited Croatia, to capture the landscape on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea and visually explore one of the most essential ingredients of cooking and food preservation: salt. In Cyprus, Johann shot in a futuristic freight-farm where vegetables are cultivated protected by the island’s extreme summer temperatures while in parallel, he created a series of portraits of fruits growing in an abandoned grove, revealing their beauty in a timeless and iconic way.

In Morocco, Greek photographer Myrto Papadopoulos photographed a community in the remote and mountainous area of Taounate. Relying on a seasonal, plant-based diet -as meat is too expensive to obtain- they have an intimate relationship with their environment, embracing what is offered by their land.

Dutch photographer Chris de Bode, travelled to Spain, to focus on the health benefits of the Mediterranean Diet, by photographing a team of scientists at the University of Navarra who carry out one of the world’s leading studies on the benefits of the Mediterranean Diet called PREDIMED+. In Italy, Chris explored the themes of gastronomy, creativity and innovation, through a series of portraits of culinary students in the city of Brescia.

Barcelona-based photographer Maria Contreras Coll visited the Portuguese island of Culatra to capture how the local community of shellfish pickers is affected by pollution, rising temperatures and overfishing and ultimately how their way of life both affects and is affected by the health of the sea.

CALENDAR

The exhibition will be hosted in the temporary exhibition hall at the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation from the 19th January to the 24th of February 2023. Throughout this period, special events and workshops will take place, co-organised with the Goethe-Institut Cyprus and the Cyprus National Commission for UNESCO.

After Cyprus, the exhibition will travel across Europe throughout 2023, with confirmed locations including Tirana, Pula, Thessaloniki and Athens.

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