Workshop Spoon Making

Oghuzhan Aydin, Milan Gillard & Annelies Clerix

5 bandages - 17 drops of blood - 6 carving knives - 149 fingers - 9 spoons made - 2 gifts created

The chopping, sawing and trampling sounds of the spoon carving workshop hosted By Oguzhan Aydin created quite some attention in the PXL. The setting, a garden with pond around the wooden mobile classroom of Stef Lemmens - The Joinery. Already the preparation process of the workshop got some interest and questions by staff, teachers and students.

In pairs the participants collaborated on a wooden spoon, one did the carving the other drew their gestures. Then switch. Conversations about heritage, families, childhood surfaced between the duos. In addition some questions were asked.

Imagine you would cook for a village, what would it look like?

What life do you imagine food has lived before it’s on our plate?

What’s the value of food within your workday?

It was quite apparent that the students that participated gained recently their student-life independence. Cooking was one of the emancipatory acts of their parent-free life. Simultaneously it was a point of insecurity. Would I be able to cook for more people than myself?

The spoons that the participants created were meant to be given to the catering team at the end of the academic year. They weren’t making their personal spoon, but in duo, and they weren’t making it for themselves. So they couldn’t get attached to them. However, in the end the students were bound to their creation.

“It was meant as a gift for my partner”. - creator of the penis spoon