Bureau d’Alimentation

Starting from 23 February 2018, every last Friday of the month, Bureau d’Alimentation took over the kitchen of Netwerk Aalst. The doors were open to anyone who’s in for some food for thought.

Slow food, cooking manifesto’s, short chain, farmer’s subsidies, experimental cooking performances and many other artistic and less artistic food projects are discussed to make a wide range of social issues negotiable and edible during the delicious meal.

The events of Bureau d’Alimentation are elsewhere on this website.

The kitchen is considered the beating heart of the domestic environment. In this place, where reproductive work takes place; where the harvest of the fields and plantations is processed to feed the mouths of workers, children, fellow residents and guests.

The kitchen is like a cultural barrel full of traditions, norms, values, rights and obligations whereas traditions and values are passed on through the cultivation of natural resources from generation to generation. In a changing society, however, the kitchen is also the place through which the new society enters the house in a literal way by means of multicultural cuisines that reaches our plates.

Outside the personal sphere, the kitchen also gets a new role in a geopolitical world; it becomes a political place for discussion and social debate in which many politicians like to be portrayed. Nikita Khrushchev and Richard Nixton set the tone in 1959 at a Moscow fair to promote American goods. Against the background of modern American cuisine, both political leaders conducted the so-called ‘Kitchen Debate’, in which the prosperity of the two superpowers was measured on the basis of average kitchen equipment.

In addition to the economic status that the modern kitchen represents, it is often the omniscient room that preserves the deepest secrets and intrigues of a family or community.

On the menu

23 February 2018
Local food: myth of reality? -NL
Bureau d’Alimentation wanted to question the definition of ‘local’ within our increasingly diverse society. How local are the hummus, guacamole, and pesto on an average Belgian menu? In a critical debate with Bruno Eeman, Joachim Rummens, and Jan Blindeman we discussed the situation of local food today.

30 March 2018
Diner-performance by Chrysanthi Koumianaki – EN
Chrysanthi Koumianaki’s work comes alive during a three course meal; art turned culinary excellence. During the meal, you’ll be part of a tasty performance.

27 April 2018
Food in Times of Crisis, with the Ex-artists’ Collective (Tamás Kaszás en Anikó Loránt) – EN
Get informed about where and when you can find food once crises strikes. The Ex-artists’ Collective has been researching for years how to deal with scarcity and what exactly is the difference between ‘poor people food’ and delicatessen.

25 May 2018 – NL/EN
Spy edition + Eye Spy Film Night
Bureau d’Alimentation served a not so innocent dinner. As a starter of the Eye Spy Film Night, everything was dedicated to espionage, intelligence agency and… poisoning. Various dishes used to poison people were served while watching the screen.

23.02.2018—00:00

30.03.2018—00:00

27.04.2018—00:00

25.05.2018—00:00