Soup

2011 - 
performance / workshop / video work
happened in South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, France and Germany

The documentation video of the project in Hamburg, Germany in 2017 

Tasting River Water as Soups

In this art practice, soups are cooked using river water from the city by people living nearby. In urban areas, people from diverse cultural backgrounds coexist. Each participant cooks a soup familiar to their own culture—such as miso soup for Japanese participants—using the river water.

Soup is a dish found in nearly every food culture. In some places, it is served at the beginning of a meal; in others, it marks the end. Across traditions, soup often plays a ritual or restorative role—it is something warm that comforts the body and mind, especially in times of illness or emotional fatigue.

The soups in this project are then shared with others. Naturally, participants are free to refuse to eat them. Here, soup becomes a representation of cultural identity. By gathering around a table and sharing soups made from polluted river water, the work invites people to share not only their cultures, but also the underlying issues—pollution, discomfort, and the boundaries of coexistence. It simultaneously reveals how difficult it can be to truly share something within the complexity of a diverse society.

All rivers ultimately flow into the ocean. We share that ocean with all living beings on Earth. Human life, cultural memory, and even conflict began by the water's edge—at a time when no national borders existed, and people lived in simpler ways.
 

This project has been realized in the form of video works, workshops, and guerrilla-style performances in public spaces.

 Drawing water from the Elbe river, Hamburg, Germany

 Cooking soups with the local residents using the Elbe river, Hamburg, Germany

The setting for serving the soups in Hamburg, Germany

The drawing for the project by monoperro