Para Ovejas

PARA OVEJAS, 2022, alfalfa, avena chata, semitin, fardo, flores.

- Baa - 

                                  - Meeeh - 

- Beeeh -

                                        - Baaa - 

               - Baaaaaa!
Beeeeeh! - 

(A fine-dining experience for sheep should not be described in human terms.)

There are approximately 6.5 million sheep and 3.4 million people in Uruguay.
The rural village of Garzón has approximately 150 inhabitants, a five-star hotel and a Michelin-starred restaurant.

When I arrived in town, I found that my supposedly abandoned tapera was never abandoned: it simply had become a place for non-humans, especially Florinda, the neighborhood sheep.

For her and the other sheep living in Garzón, our chef-in-residence Matilde Grue and I created Para Ovejas, a refined, all-you-can-graze restaurant, serving dishes devised in collaboration with a local farm, selecting only the finest crops to produce delicious recipes for memorable ovine experiences.

This work is a relational and performative piece for sheep, which will provide food and shelter for many months to come.

For human visitors, it is an invitation to think critically about the process of luxury gentrification currently ongoing in Garzón and in rural Uruguay, a process of transformation of both landscape and society, with contemporary art and fine dining providing entertainment and “experiences” only apparently connected to local customs and specificities.