Towards the end of the Politics of Food residency at Delfina Foundation, a conceptual lunch menu was developed during the Markets and Movements Weekend.
This conceptual meal explored the myths and fantasies of consumer choice within neoliberal economies. While developing Manufacturing Purana, a study into the myths that are used to sell ideas and products in the market, we looked into the importance of the ‘day after’. The day after a revolution, a referendum, or even a dinner party becomes important, which is when the repercussions of the night before need to be addressed.
The day after is the aftermath of the decision, not always positive but riddled with new problems – a dystopia where the likelihood is that promises will not be lived up to. The day after a choice has been made, you wake up to a world more closed – particularly true in today’s increasingly nationalistic and inward-looking political landscape.
For this meal people were confronted with this precise ‘dystopia’: instead of the limitless array of choice provided by the free market they were presented with a reversion to finite options. The contents of menu hidden and referred to by cryptic yet significant numbers.
