The Ecofeminist Dinner Party
Clémence Vazard
l’Eté des Serpents
Arles, France
05.07.2022

Who gets a seat at the table?

The Ecofeminist Dinner Party series consist of a performative and participatory ritual grounded in personal stories with food serving as an entry point for sharing emotional narratives. Echoing her research “A quest for the binding agent between feminism and ecology within participatory art practice », Vazard hosts dinners and invites at the table women* creating a moment to gather around food and nurture each other with exchange of thoughts, experiences, and emotions.

This first dinner was held in Arles in July 2022, where the artist invited each participant to choose a vegetal ingredient with which they have a deep personal history. Vazard collaborated with food artist Anastasia Finders to create a menu celebrating each of these ingredients, bringing them together as a symbol of these personal narratives that were shared through the act of eating together.

The Ecofeminist Dinner Party series is a long-term project, designed to be replayed on spontaneous or long-planned occasions, evolving with experiences, locations and participants, and multiplying its impact over time. Each time, the dinner is activated around Vazard’s work “A Tablecloth for The Ecofeminist Dinner Party”, a three meters by three meters fabric made from organic hemp and eco-printed with flowers selected for their queer symbolism. The dinner-performances leaves no trace except for this tablecloth as an archive of the performance infused with the emotions shared within the participants during the dinner. Clémence Vazard’s work “A Tablecloth for The Ecofeminist Dinner Party” was then presented at l’Eté des Serpents, as part of the exhibition Symbiocene. 

Curation
Marie de Ganay

Production
L’Eté des Serpents

Photography
Anne-Sophie Guillet