Numeroventi is pleased to present Grandmother’s Aau (Grandmother’s hour), a joint chef and artist residency with Ayami Awazuhara and Kasia Fudakowski. Drawing from the tradition of physical learning and cross-generational knowledge, the two artists explored culinary inheritance and glass blowin techniques respectively. The result is a Japanese Style Dinner Party run by Ayami Awazuhara with the presentation of a series of new works created by Kasia Fudakowski together with Collevilca glass studio. The event takes place on Saturday 24th from 5.30 pm at Numeroventi, in Via Pandolfini 20 in Florence. The work exhibition will be on view until July 9th.

Grandmother’s Aau synthetizes a one-week residency celebrating cultural heritage in cooking, food preservation and traditional, skilled manufacturing, embodied in the figures of a Grandmother. Manual knowledge, time awareness and patience belong to culinary practices as much as glass blowing techniques and permeate both artists’ research during their stay in Florence.

Interested in reconciling the know-how of our grandmothers’ generation of women – often resulting from the time they were obliged to spend in domestic environments – and the emancipated empowerment of the following generations, Ayami Awazuhara focused on food research and cooking sessions as collective and participative experiences. Similarly, Kasia Fudakowski developed the “Grandmother series”, consisting of various vessels including vases, bowl, jugs and lamps where glass was blown into steel structures created by the artist. Combining fragile and strong materials to create these bulbous vessels, the series emphasizes the strength of acquired wisdom, and over-owing generosity yet also the fragility of age and the limiting obligations of gender.

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Ayami Awazuhara is a chef and an artist based in Berlin. After graduating from the fine art department at the University of Arts Berlin, she followed her passion and went back to Japan, learnt the philosophy of traditional Japanese cuisine, gaining experience at several renowned kitchens including at Gion Matayoshi, a Kaiseki restaurant in Kyoto.

Kasia Fudakowski is a visual artist born in London, UK who has lived in Berlin since 2006. Her diverse and playful practice, which includes sculpture, film, performance, and writing, explores social riddles through material encounters, surreal logic and comic theory.

Collevilca is a glass blowing factory located in Colle Val d’Elsa (Tuscany) born from the joint collaboration of Colle and Villa Companies founded in 1960 and 1970 respectively. The Master Craftsmen who participated to the “Grandmother series” are Stefano Gennai, Roberto Di Meglio and Giampiero Brogi.