As part of the 2nd Week of Italian Cuisine, held from November 20 to November 26 2017, promoted by MAECI (Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale) MIUR (Ministero dell’Istruzione dell’Università e della Ricerca) and MIPAAF (Ministero delle politiche agricole alimentari e forestali), the Italian Cultural Institute of Montreal in collaboration with the Union des écrivaines et des écrivains québécois (UNEQ) present the conference: “Taste perception as a means of knowing places” by Antida Gazzola. The conference is part of the series of encounters entitled “La Piazza – Literary”, a public meeting place conceived by the Italian Cultural Institute and the Union des écrivaines et des écrivains québécois.
November 23, 2017, 6pm – Free Admission
Maison des écrivains
3492, avenue Laval, Montréal
Conference in French
From the moment we are born, to eat and to move, to have a place to stay and to have strong affections with the Other are, for each of us, the indispensable requirements on which depend our own life. When we grow, the horizons widen, food as a survival also become, in the contexts where it is possible, food as pleasure; with walking, moving becomes a source of ever-increasing knowledge, from bed to room, from room to house, from house to street, to neighborhood, to city and, afterwards, to farther, broad and complex places. At the same time, food attracts in different places people that otherwise would not have reason to stay together.
The restaurant, the bistro, the café, even prior to be an answer to the need of food, are places that host social relationships. Food is always a narration of itself, of its identity, of its inheritance, for those who cook but also for those who consume it. Cities provide a self-image and a material contribution to well-being through the supply of foods to be consumed in the background of internal and external scenarios that are never neutral and affect all the perceptions. Taste has an important role, and, through social sharing and memory, helps to identify urban features and to remind them linking certain places to a positive or negative experience.
The city of Genoa, in the last 15 years risen to the to the forefront of the Italian tourist destinations, offers particular connections between food and urban-historical heritage.
Antida GAZZOLA, born in Sanremo (IM), where she graduated in class, graduated in Genoa, obtaining her degree in law and specialization in Clinical Criminology with the highest marks and praise. She has been a consultant for O.N.U for a four-year (1989-1992). (SSE L / 3 33/89 contract) for training activities in favor of the Maghreb countries on topics related to the knowledge of the urban environment. In 2000-2001 she coordinated, in Genoa, one of the Italian working groups who collaborated with the MOST – UNESCO program “Les mots de la ville“. She is currently full time professor of Urban and Rural Sociology, Sociology of the Environment and Territory, and Sociology of the Environment and Communication at the Polytechnic School of the University of Genoa. She is Vice President of CRAFTS (Applied Research Center and Training on Territorial and Social Dynamics).
Reservation no longer available