Introduction

No matter how sexy, the human mouth is primarily the instrument of eating; even its role in lovemaking has the quality of a sensual devouring of the lover. The mouth is the beginning of the alimentary canal. Every parts of the mouth contributes to the elemental function of digestion. However, the mouth participates also on the other spectrum; the most sophisticated aspect of human life, the precision of language. Moreover, the mouth carries breath, as life, spirit, soul, word, creation. Our mouths are equipped with the extraordinary number of nerve endings, and a large portion of our sensory cortex is dedicated to the mouth’s multiple activities. What is the mouth not able to do?

Individual’s relationship to the mouth or to the object of oral consumption also reveals his attitude towards life, sensory and emotional stability. We observe and address it with an abstractly defined temperance or by following the rule of a modest measure. From the biblical references on sins, where gluttony is only one of many on the scale of anomalies of wantonness and pathology of an individual, especially in the contemporary Western society they are often supplemented by the extremes on the other side of the spectrum. They are well depicted exactly in the example of individual’s relationship towards food, its place in the society and related rituals.

Art reflects contemporary society with all its particularities and does not forget to deal with the mouth as the cave of consumption in doing so. Creators address orality in their works as a form of a mediated or an experiential experience; they expose the differences between the edible and inedible; the relationship to the object of consumption; the roles of tasting and compensation. They offer an experience: a complex or a simple one, a rational and/or an experiential one. Sometimes also by restructuring the performative space into a meeting space for a temporal but connected community. They achieve this in a very efficient way, by setting up a common table with food and drinks that we can all prepare, get to know, taste and share together.

We will be honoured to see the works by Sorour Darabi (expert jury award – Zürcher Theater Spektakel 2016), Chris Haring/Liquid Loft (Golden Lion for best performance at the Venice Biennale 2007, he received the Outstanding Artists Award for performing arts from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Arts in 2010), Anna Dankova, Ana Romih, Beno Novak, Ivan Mijačević, Aja Zupanec and others.

We hope you will awaken your senses and taste the festival offer; besides artistic, also culinary and wine treats!

Jasmina Založnik and Mojca Kasjak