The project Digestive System of Humanity is a collaboration between a sister and a brother, an artist and a chef. Based on ongoing research, it addresses the hybridity of history and the agency of collective imagination by inviting the audience to become members of a ritualistic eating-reading group.The performance script comprises numerous characters written by Goda and meals prepared by Jonas, and is arranged as an immersive experience where all the audience members take a role. Reminiscent of a theatre rehearsal or a dinner at a friend's place, the characters shape-shift with every iteration but usually include Ancient Greek poetess Sappho, Swedish mystic and medium Emanuel Swedenborg, Karaite archaeologist and falsifier Avraham Firkovič, and many others whose existences questioned cultural clichés and political impositions. People of diverse identities, who operated outside the discourses of power, and were seen as troublemakers or antiheroes, are invited to the dinner – to discuss and digest what bothers them the most.
Goda Palekaitė is an artist working in the intersection of contemporary art, performance, artistic research, literature, and anthropology. Her practice evolves around projects exploring the politics of historical narratives, the agency of dreams and imagination, and social conditions of creativity.
Jonas Palekas is a chef and food artist whose practice and research interests include performative dinners, experimental food system design, speculations on food futures, advocacy of ecological relations, and microbiological activism.
