For Aichi Triennale 2025, artist Mirna Bamieh is presenting two works where food is seen as both a personal and a political act. Taking over a former restaurant in the Aichi Arts Center, the installations span both spaces of the restaurant and kitchen.
On view in the restaurant is the installation Sour Cords made up of a row of suspended ceramic objects shaped like chilli peppers, okra, garlic and cloves strung together, evoking the ancient preservation method of sun drying. All known for their medicinal properties and as symbols of prosperity, some of the chillies and okras are decorated with childlike drawings; on others, large eyes appear, both as witnesses to and protection against the ongoing brutality. On a large bulb of garlic, the words by the late renowned Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish read “You will be forgotten as if you never existed.” The artist describes this project as self-healing, referring to the use of the okra which bears her surname in Arabic, Bamieh.

Bitter Things: In the Name of an Orange was originally conceived as an immersive kitchen where the sensory language of food becomes a medium for remembrance, resistance, and storytelling; stories of oranges, from bitter oranges to the sweet oranges from Jaffa. From ancient times to histories of wars and occupation, bitterness becomes a lens through which we can trace loss, exile, and resilience.
In the kitchen, a raw clay landscape with ceramic sculptures of Shammouti Jaffa oranges —references this violent disruption of Palestinian agriculture and heritage. Videos embedded in the landscape depict traditional Andalusian and Levantine methods of harvesting and fermenting bitter oranges.