What does Venezuela, Iran, Afghanistan, Cuba, and North Korea have in common? All of these are countries that the U.S. is currently in conflict with. Conflict Kitchen is a take-out restaurant in Pittsburgh, PA that only serves cuisine from countries with which the United States is in conflict.
Every 6 months, the restaurant highlights another country, and the food is served out of a take-out style storefront. With each change, there is a series of events, performances, and discussion that occur about the culture, politics and issues at stake with each country.
Currently Conflict Kitchen is in its third version, and is working with La Cocina Arepas, a Venezuelan take-out restaurant that serves homemade arepas, grilled corncakes served to order with a variety of fillings. The arepas come packaged in a custom-designed wrapper that includes interviews with Venezuelans both in Venezuelan and the United States on subjects ranging from Venezuelan food and culture to issues of geopolitics. The wrappers were developed in collaboration with members of the Venezuelan community.
The wrappers designed in bright colors and with modern typography and the interviews range in topics ranging from from street food and popular culture to debates about President Hugo Chavez and the geopolitical dynamics of the region. The variety and contradiction of thoughts and opinions reflect the range of thought within the country and serves to instigate questioning, conversation, and debate with our customers.
The project combines food, personal stories, and design resulting in sparking many interesting conversations. Conflict Kitchen is a project by Jon Rubin, and Dawn Weleski with graphic design by Brett Yasko and architectural design by Pablo Garcia/POiNT. The project is supported by The Waffle Shop, The Sprout Fund, School of Art, Carnegie Mellon University and Center for the Arts in Society.
Currently Conflict Kitchen is open for winter on Saturdays and Sundays from 11:30am to 2:30pm, and will reopen 7 days a week on April 1st, 2012.
Image Source:
www.conflictkitchen.org
Links:
www.conflictkitchen.org