Tools

“Vengono analizzati oggetti d’uso semplici, processi di transformazione autogestiti (come l’agricoltura e l’artigianato) e le culture materiali extraurbane, come campi d’indagine. Il metodo antropologico viene usat come strumento di analisi e d’interpretazione. La sperimentazione diretta (il fare come pensare), la manualità, l’uso ed il comportamento vengono usati come strumenti di riappropriazone personale e dell’ambiente.”

Superestudio, 1978

Utensils are simple use tools that accompany our daily life. They define our daily acts, habits and behaviors. Using them, we appropriate our environment and ourselves. To inhabit a territory is to also repeat a series of actions in the everyday.

Moreover, utensils designed in stone connect us to past rituals, to the artisanal traditions and processes of Peru and the transformation of vegetable and mineral organisms through bodily energy. Activities like carving a stone or pressing seeds connect us with nature. These utensils were traditionally a part of everyday life in the Andean and Amazonian worlds, in preparing their meals, medicine, dyes and the hallucinogens employed in their rituals.

The body is a fundamental part of this ritual. Unlike electronic utensils, these mortars, batans and squeezers require that we respect the time it takes for our body to conduct the preparation in union with the objects.

As we use the utensils, we merge with the natural processes of plants and stone. Upon ingesting food prepared with these objects, we absorb the sun, water and earth’s minerals’ energy, and reclaim the slow ritual of nourishment.

The mortars, batans and squeezers are made of granite, a rock whose hardness allows to softly extract the vegetable essences from plants without destroying their color, flavor and internal structure. The density of the rock prevents artifacts from absorbing the scents of food, making a quick wash enough to work through different herbs, seeds, fruits and so on.

The utensils are contemporary pieces created through the study of artisanal traditions and techniques and employing local materials.

Text translation
Nicolás del Castillo