Arts Collaboratory

“Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner” is a collaborative project between students and professionals of the visual arts and humanities from Mexico, The Netherlands and Morocco consisting of six independent, but closely connected video-documentaries around the subject of the three diary meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner. The project was carried out throughout a series of workshops -Mexico (September -October 2009), Morocco (November -December 2009) and The Netherlands (January - February, 2010)- coordinated by visual artists and filmmakers that have collaborated with el despacho.

The workshops were conformed of twelve participants who came into contact with diverse individuals and communities of the three respective countries, putting into action and collectively reformulating their knowledge in order to create a series of audio-visual tools that helped to “portray” a series of events, people and places.

The three short films Margarita, Luz Urbana and Don Rafa, are the portraits of three different persons living in Mexico City. The rhythm of their days are summarised in their eating habits and the relationships they establish with the outside world.

In Muftah, The name of the goat, the framer is framed: the group of students/filmmakers is portrayed. The participants were filmed during a one-week workshop that included a trip to the mountains in northern Morocco led by a special teacher… and a goat.

The Big Celebration proposes an insight into the Islamic ritual in which sheep are slaughtered as a way to approach the sacred.

In the poetic film From Dawn till Dusk the existence of four individuals living in Amsterdam is portrayed by means of glimpses and pieces. A special animal farm located in the middle of the city, serves as a connecting node between the characters.

The films are released in a DVD, which also includes a series of exercises carried out by the workshop participants in previous stages. Furthermore, as part of this project, the book titled “Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner: Logbook of a collective journey through the creation of ludic connections” will be launched. The latter -comprised of texts, drawings and photographs by Mexican, Dutch and Moroccan participants- tells the story behind the process of the audiovisual story-telling.
Both the DVD and the book about the workshop will be presented at cultural and educational venues in Mexico, The Netherlands and Morocco during the fall of 2010.