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Trichtlinnburg Regional Specialty, 2005

Meal: pork, turnips, potato salad, dandelion leaves
Dimensions variable

Trichtlinnburg was an exhibition organized in collaboration between artists and art spaces in the mid-size European towns of Maastricht, NL, Tallinn, Estonia, and Salzburg, Austria. The exhibition, whose title is a combination of the last syllables of each of the town's names, was intended to focus on the city branding of each of the sites.

My contribution to Trichtlinnburg was a meal served for free at one of the local restaurants on the Vrijthof central square in Maastricht. I combined traditional recipes from each of the three cities to create a specialty that was non-geographic, yet vaguely specific. As the center of the dish, I chose a pork recipe, common to all of the sites, because of the importance of pork for Europe in general and also because it shows how food is also about creating identity. The other dishes included a recipe for turnips from Austria, a potato salad from Estonia, and a dandelion salad from Maastricht.

The funding given to me for materials and execution of the project, I channeled to providing the meal for free at a restaurant in Maastricht. The meal was advertised in the press information for the exhibition as well as at the restaurant itself. Anyone who ordered the meal received it free of charge and the exhibition paid the restaurant for each meal served.