Carlos Azeredo Mesquita

While sitting around a table, and eating what chef Vasco Coelho Santos, from the prestigious Porto restaurant Euskalduna Studio, prepares for the occasion, we are faced with the contradictions and meanings of digested food. Going through different time periods and stories about food, this rich and diverse approach comprises references from art, anthropology and pop culture, thus revealing ethical dilemmas. Can nationalism hijack food? Is the food system a system of oppression? Do we choose what we eat or does food choose us? This unique meal was presented at the Berlin Biennale, and it now takes over a room at Ateneu, inviting us to critically reflect upon what we ingest daily. This performance was supported by Criatório in 2018, one of the programmes that substantiate the municipal policy of supporting contemporary artistic practice in Porto. Not recommended for vegans, vegetarians or people with food intolerances or prone to allergies.  


Carlos Azeredo Mesquita (Porto, 1988) has a degree in communication design from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto, and from the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (Budapest), where he studied photography. He was a grantee of the INOV-Art programme, having worked with Neville Brody in Berlin. He received the BES Revelação Award in 2010, and he has since worked mostly as a visual artist, regularly presenting his work both in Portugal and abroad. He premiered his first performance, “Diet Plan for the Western Man”, at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art as part of the 2018 Berlin Biennale.