Cooking in Maximum Security is a research project developed by Matteo Guidi on the cusp of art and social anthropology and designed to be implemented in different prisons throughout the world. CMS bases its potential on a social and human reading of “cooking methods” that inmates generate with the minimal resources existing in their environment.
It was conceived in 2009 with a group of inmates of an Italian maximum security penitentiery and developed with prisoners of differents penal institutions, focusing on the culinary methods that apply the limited available resources found within prison cells. Phase 1 was developed in Italy while phase 2 is currently being developed in Spain.
To become a collaborator, partner or a sponsor, to receive information to ask questions or to exhibit and scheduled CMS workshops and presentations,
please contact info[at]cookinginmaximumsecurity.com
EXHIBITIONS
PRIZES
PRESS REVIEWS
(EN)
Eat this podcast
Cody Doctorow's blog
Droste Effect
Incuqina
Mirus – Munchies (Vice)
(ES)
Boek861
In Media Res – Indiecolors
Rne Radio 4
(CAT)
La xarxa Radio
Surt de casa
(IT)
AlpaBeta 2 – Ansa
Bologna Secret’s
Ciao – Corriere della Sera – Con Coop
Domus – D di Repubblica
EcoCoaching
Franzmagazine
Gambero Rosso
Il Manifesto – Il Manifesto (Bologna) – Il Tirreno – Il Tirreno Weekend – Incuqina – Internazionale
Jabar
La Nazione – La Repubblica (Bologna) – L’Adige (Rovereto) – L’altra riva – L’Espresso – Le Due Città – Letture di un pirata – L’Unione Sarda
Ministero della Giustizia
Nuovoconsumo
Pace & Diritti Umani – PaginaFood – Pagine in frequenza – Piazza Grande
Radio Capital – Redattore Sociale – Ristorazione & Catering
Sala&cucina – Servizi di Catering – Spaghi d’Autore
Telesardegna – Tempi – TRC
Una città
Vanity Fair – Videolina
ACADEMIC ARTICLES
TALKS & PRESENTATIONS
Cooking in Maximum Security has been presented in various of places and contexts, triggering a wide range of discussions with professionals from different disciplines.
Cagliari Capital of Italian Culture 2015
Matteo Guidi held a workshop-talk, in collaboration with the artist Giuliana Racco, within the framework of Passavamo sulla storia leggeri, a cycle of events curated by Antonia Alampi and Jens Maier-Rothe, taking place at the Cagliari Museum of Modern Art as part of Cagliari Capital of Italian Culture 2015. On this occasion, Guidi presented the general CMS project and also presented CMS phase 2 for the first time.
Department of Justice of the Government of Catalunya
Escola Massana (Barcelona’s municipal Art and Design centre).
Galleria Più – with Fabrizio Lollini (Assistant Professor of Medieval Art History).
Espai Capra – with Rolando d’Alessandro (writer and activist).
University of Barcelona – XXI JORNADAS DOCTORALES Y DE INVESTIGACION DEL ODELA (Observatorio de la alimentaciò).
Ost West club Est Ovest – with Aldo Mazza (director of a publishing house and a language training center operating in Bolzano Penitentiary), Markus Lobis (expert in social communication), Nicolò Degiorgis (photographer) and Martina Dandolo (designer and curator of the Cooking in Maximum Security project in Merano).
28 Posti Restaurant – with the restaurants sous-chefs from Bollate Penitentiary.
Montagnola Park Auditorium – with Pina Lalli (Professor of Sociology of Communication).
University of Bologna.
S.a.L.E. Docks, Former Salt Warehouse – with Marco Rigamo (Global Project Editor), Giulia Girardello (Independent Curator), moderated by Marco Baravalle (Activist with Sale Docks).
Maiano Maximum Security Penitentiary.
The Hub – with Gino Gianuizzi (Independent Curator and professor in the academy of fine arts of Bologna).
XI Workshop on Social Enterprise – with Giuliana Racco (Artist) and Gino Gianuizzi (Independent Curator and professor in the academy of fine arts of Bologna).
Resistance Literature Festival – with Francesca De Carolis (Journalist and Writer), Marcello Baraghini (Publisher and Editorial Director of Stampa Alternativa, Cucinare in Massima Sicurezza’s publishing house) and Letizia Nuciotti (Writer and Chef).
Amid the spectacular setting of the old city of Pitigliano, the group focused on literature produced in prison and other forms of resistance, including cooking. During the presentation, Letizia Nuciotti spoke of her latest book on disability as a form of detention, while preparing the recipe for Frittelle alla Sughera using the same tools and methods described in the book.
Saints Cosmos and Damian Sanctuary – with Don Francesco Mariani (Priest and Sociologist), coordinated by Michele Tatti (Journalist).
Akademie der Kunste der Welt – with Giuliana Racco (Artist) and Alessandro Petti – Sandi Hilal (Architect and Urbanist co-founders of DAAR).
Semmai Factory Contemporary Art space – with Stefano Taccone (Art Critic and Curator) and Vincenzo Estremo (Art Writer and Curator).
Pastificio Cerere Foundation – with Francesca De Carolis (Journalist and Writer), Marcello Baraghini (Publisher and Editorial Director of Stampa Alternativa the publishing house of Cucinare in Massima Sicurezza ), Paola Gianelli (Psychologist), Gino Gianuizzi (Independent Curator).
Trebisonda bookshop – with Milena Prisco (Lawyer).
Literature Festival – with Francesca De Carolis (Journalist and Writer), Mirko Mazzali (Lawyer), Nadia Bizzotto (Prison Volunteer), Franco Bomprezzi (Journalist).
Il Vivaio del Malcantone Centre for Research in Cultural Practices – with Pietro Gaglianò (Curator) and Francesca Zannoni (Vegan Chef).
O’ Non-profit Centre of Contemporary Art – with Luca Bigliardi (Architect).
Modo InfoShop Bookshop – with Sofia Venturoli (Anthropologist), and Ernesto (waiting to be born).
Double Room Visual Art Gallery – with Pino Roveredo (Writer), Cecilia Donaggio (Multimedia Artist), Teresa Donaggio (Social Educator), Lilli Zumbo (Social Worker).
Giunti Bookshop – with Sandro Pascucci (Philosopher).
Cooking in Maximum Security is a research project developed by Matteo Guidi on the cusp of art and social anthropology and designed to be implemented in different prisons throughout the world. CMS bases its potential on a social and human reading of “cooking methods” that inmates generate with the minimal resources existing in their environment.
It was conceived in 2009 with a group of inmates of an Italian maximum security penitentiery and developed with prisoners of differents penal institutions, focusing on the culinary methods that apply the limited available resources found within prison cells. Phase 1 was developed in Italy while phase 2 is currently being developed in Spain.
The passion many prisoners nurture for cooking is also a tool for redemption and the formation of a new identity. Men from patriarchal socio-cultural contexts –where gender differences are strongly demarcated through a clear division of tasks–, men who had never set foot in a kitchen before, now find themselves inventing culinary spaces, methods and tools. Kitchen practices reposition the “traditional” male figure through a transformation of the role and values both within the family and the penal world, where certain categories connected to gender usually tend to exacerbate themselves. Cooking and sharing a meal (often the cook invites other inmates into his cell) become acts of personal construction and development, involving many different aspects of the human being: psychological, social, cultural, emotional and identity-related.
Cooking in prison becomes a means to find dignity and a social space among the prison community and, inevitably, also triggers a repositioning within the family of origin. It is precisely from the family, particularly the female memebers, that support is requested, be it in terms of raw materials, money to buy certain food and tools, or recipes and information concerning the preparation of traditional family dishes.
The project originated with the intention to create a book: a manual where kitchen utensils -described and illustrated in detail- are the connecting thread with a special emphasis on their construction and uses.
Our aim is to continue this research through the formation of study groups in different countries.
Moving from the first investigation which lead to the production of the “cookbook” and the second investigation which will also be finalized in a book publication, we now wish to extend the research –both methodologically and thematically– by looking into the social impact on territory, including research on food and culinary practices in prison as a form of psycho-social redefinition on the part of the inmates.
This redefinition also carries the functions of a symbolic exit from prison and the reconquering of a space within the family; a relationship that is often exacerbated by distances and other problematics (especially in the case of maximum security). The subject of the research remains the culinary practices of inmates and its effects on their identity and on their roles, inside and outside of prison, particularly in relation to the family of origin.
In countries where cooking in cells is not permitted (as in the case of Spain), the focus hinges on the relationship between the prisoner and what s/he eats, both in terms of that which is offered by the institution and that which is purchased in the vending machines. Furthermore, a look into the culinary practices of female inmates has, from a first exploratory investigation, proven to be highly interesting: it appears that cooking occurs less frequently in these cells than in those of their male counterparts. This may be interpreted as a form of rejection of the penal condition.
The aims of the research will be:
