Riccetario Imaginato
Leone Contini
2 taccuini
ca. 250 ricette
1 Grande Guerra
1 prigioniero di guerra e prozio, Giosué Fiorentino
1 artista e pronipote, Leone Contini
1 custode/ trascrittrice e pronipote, Annamaria Caputo
2 Kunstverein Amsterdam & Milano
1 traduttore
1 grafico
28.02.2019
@ Kunstverein Amsterdam & Mangiassai, Amsterdam
Riccetario Imaginato contains 250 regional Italian recipes drawn from two small handwritten notebooks, marked “B98” and “Ricettario Culinare n. 2” (“Culinary recipe book no. 2”). These notebooks once belonged to Giosué Fiorentino, and were compiled by him and other Italian war prisoners in a German prison camp. They had been brought there after having been captured by the Austro-Hungarian and German armies during the 12th, and last, Battle of the Isonzo (also known as the Battle of Caporetto or rather, the most disastrous defeat in Italian military history). Writing down these recipes and discussing the right way to prepare certain dishes became a survival strategy for this group of men who were succumb by hunger.
It is the first time that the recipes from the notebooks have been published in both Italian and English, alongside the reproductions of the original pages of the notebooks.
Simultaneously this book marks the end of a number of imaginary dinners organised by Kunstverein Milano and Amsterdam – with real food – that took place at several locations and were orchestrated, commented on, and hosted by the great-nephew of Giosué Fiorentino, Italian artist Leone Contini. This dinner and launch will be the final chapter.