What can potatoes tell us about ourselves? What do they say about the construction of a national identity? And, what role can the development of new narratives play in creating expanded social imaginaries? These are some of the questions I address in Cooking Potato Stories: a multilayered trans-local project that follows the routes and roots of the potato in the context of Galicia, Colombia and The Netherlands. Embedded in my own experience of living in these places, the project traces its forgotten colonial legacies, placing them in a broader context of political, social, and emotional relationships.  

By analyzing the stories we tell each other, Cooking Potato Stories drives forward a complex process of understanding ourselves individually, and as a collective. Mixing ingredients, such as heritage, history, imaginary, traditions, and autobiography, the project trials recipes that unfold new narratives of the history of the potato to construct new social memories.

1. What challenges did you face in the process of making this work? 

To dig into the ways in which individuals and society are constructed, is not easy, as we tend to hide these patterns underground. They prove how narratives can give or take away power, and how the ideologies and subjectivities behind these narratives are embedded in historical memory and encapsulated in local ideas.

2. How are you going to develop this project further?

I will continue to work on Cooking Potato Stories in different contexts and animate the qualities of this humble tuber to create ways to speak about ourselves.

3. What has the Lighthouse program done for you as a maker?

The Lighthouse program has given me the time and space to continue my work on this project and reach a new level of professionalization in my practice.