The Maaleipä contemporary art project is looking for ecological food production with the help of a bread recipe challenge

Can you bread be art?

Of course you can, and in the opinion of non-bakers as well. This year’s commissioned piece by the Ihme Helsinki contemporary art organization Country bread is an art project that aims to influence the state of the environment by developing new bread recipes.

Country bread has been realized by the London-based artist duo Cooking Sections.

“In our works, we often consider ecological issues: what and how we eat shapes both our bodies and our environment,” says another member of the duo Alon Schwabe.

“Our works are process-based and place-bound, so the end result of our work is not necessarily an object or a work, but we create events or moments based on processes and conversations. We bring people together to think about what kind of infrastructure change is needed in the food chain, so that we can change the way we eat in the midst of the climate crisis.”

Cooking The climate theme of Sections’ work is the main reason why Ihme Helsinki wanted to commission this year’s work from it. For the past six years, Ihme Helsinki has focused in its work commissions on how art and art institutions could support the sustainability breakthrough, says Ihme Helsinki’s executive director and curator Paula Toppila.

In practice, this year’s Miracle work has been a competition in which Finnish bakers, both professionals and amateurs, were asked for new types of bread recipes.

Their purpose is to rethink the concept of bread, away from familiar ingredients towards more environmentally friendly production methods while also thinking about nutritional values. And of course it would be desirable for the bread to taste good in the eater’s mouth.

But why bread and not some other food?

Alon Schwabe says that the design process of the project took about two years. During that time, they interviewed experts in the food industry, from farmers to civil servants and food safety professionals.

“The use of the land came up again and again. In Finland, a lot of animal feed is grown instead of human food, and a lot of different pesticides are used. They flow into rivers and eventually into the Baltic Sea. So we wanted to promote the use of farmland for growing food.”

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“Through bread, we can think about food production as a whole.”

This, in turn, is helped by a special characteristic of Finns, says Schwabe. According to him, Finns are a nation of bread.

“Food production is hugely industrial these days, but people in Finland still bake bread in their homes regularly. It connects home bakers and professionals.”

April between mid and early September Country bread-about 30 recipe proposals were received, from which 14 finalists were selected. This year’s Ihme project will culminate on Saturday, September 21, at the Maaleipäjhla in Teurastamo’s Kellohalli, where the finalist breads will be presented and the best will be awarded.

“The recipes we received were very different in their approach to raw materials and preparation techniques. The finalists reflect the diversity of different bread cultures,” says Alon Schwabe.

“At the same time, they give a view of the future, i.e. what bread can become. There are very innovative breads that may seem strange and contain ingredients that not many people have tasted. Other breads use early techniques that have been forgotten.”

Some recipes use a large number of different ingredients, which, according to Schwabe, is a good reflection of what can be grown in the fields.

“If the bread is not made only from wheat, it can contain, for example, wheat, spelt, oats and various seeds. Then we increase the demand for flax seeds, for example. They can all be grown organically, so we can change farming practices.”

In some the recipes also use new or unusual ingredients. Schwabe mentions, for example, flour made from acorns.

“With that, we can think that trees would become part of farming. It has a long history, which, however, has been forgotten with the industrialization of the food industry.”

A Finnish historical example is, of course, pettuleipä, which saved many from starvation during the famine years.

“On Saturday, there will be an opportunity to taste wild game as well,” says Schwabe.

“Pettu is an interesting example, because to produce it, arable forestry would be needed, which combines agriculture and forestry. That would create farmland that is much more diverse than arable farming and at the same time more ecologically sustainable.”

You can see the finalist breads of the Maaleipä challenge at the Maaleipä party on Saturday, September 21, 2024 from 14:00 to 18:00 in Teurastamo’s Kellohalli (Työpajankatu 2).