Pain du désir

The idea for this workshop came from research conducted at the CCR MUCEM home to a rich collection of ritual breads deriving from various Mediterranean traditions and prepared throughout the year during festivities or special occasions. The artist took this secular tradition and created a new bread du désir (of desire) ritual repeated throughout the three years of the project.

The workshop, in collaboration with ZEF’s cultural facilitator, Zahra Adda Attou, took place at the Gare Franche using a traditional Algerian clay oven built on-site by the neighborhood’s residents. During confinement the workshop became a virtual opening not only to locals but also national and European participation.

During the workshop, each object, each material, each step told a story.

The participants, of all ages, created a loaf giving it an abstract or figurative shape, the bread was then baked and photographed and later preserved in the project archive along with a record of the associated “desire to look further”. All the breads created will be displayed in an exhibition dedicated to the project at MUCEM. 

The workshop is a space for creation where time slows down and or dilates and everyone shares a personal experience and identity.