Project realized during Futuri Prossimi, a path promoted by Jest (Turin), curated by Francesca Cirilli, Tommaso Clavarino, and Tommaso Parrilla.
“A plastic tablecloth turns into a bizarre path backwards along the artist’s family tree, with a geographical, linguistic, and generational mismatch. The clutter of photographs documents a linguistic misunderstanding: among her mother’s photographic archive, the artist finds what she imagines—or wishes—to be a youthful love letter to her father.

Written in a language that, though maternal, was never passed on to her by her mother, the artist discovers that the love letter is actually a small collection of recipes. The small recipe becomes an opportunity to reunite after years with her aunts in Romania and cook with them, in a context of total mutual incomprehension, a cake once again the object of ambiguity.

Out of haste, or emotion, what was supposed to be a honey cake ends up becoming an apple pie. The project thus documents the alienating affection toward a lost family identity, a misunderstanding that renews identity ties with unexpected affections, becoming a site for reflection on the importance of language and how it can be a symbol of belonging to a place.”

My current project is an interdisciplinary investigation of family identity, language, and culture; this project highlights the complexity of family relationships, the power of language as a vehicle of identity, and the importance of cross-cultural communication.

I have indeed been deprived of a part of my culture and a strong part of my roots. Photography is a powerful language, allowing me to communicate without the use of translations. But languages are important.

I would like to contribute to the cultural debate through work that can inspire other people to explore their family histories and reflect on the challenges and riches of diversity.

During the exhibition, I bake and serve the wrong cake so that around the table the dialogue that I have missed for so many years is recreated. The love letter was not a love letter but a recipe; however, cooking for someone and with someone is in itself an act of love that takes place around a kitchen table.