On the road of cocoa
Olivia Paroldi He is about to depart for Cameroon, the first step in a series of visits to cocoa farms across different continents, for an artistic project that is close to his heart, combining, as always, the humanism of the cause of children’s rights and the poetry of the graphic language deployed in his prints.
The origins of the project
«This project was born from a beautiful encounter,» enthuses the artist. The world of childhood is one of the driving forces behind my work, and it is a subject we share with my partner Julien Dechenaud, a chocolatier from Paris. In fact, chocolate conveys the taste of childhood; it is the emblem of an unrestrained indulgence.".
For Julien Dechenaud, immersion in the farms of small cocoa producers is the opportunity to go back to the origins of the typicality of the taste of the different crus, to understand how specific notes develop according to the climate, the terroir, the work and processing of the beans, a unique characteristic that he intends to reproduce as faithfully as possible in his creations, while respecting the history associated with each culture. Olivia Paroldi will meet the families of the village organized around the farm, encounters that will inspire a series of prints.
«I would like to understand how children perceive the taste of cocoa, to know what their childhood taste is like, to know how they imagine indulgence, if the concept exists in terms comparable to ours, whether the imagination of taste is the same or different,» explains Olivia Paroldi.
An artistic and humanitarian approach
These meetings and exchanges, the artist will narrate them in her own graphic language: the printmaking. The drawings she engraves are always a way of making the invisible visible, with tenderness and kindness, with an attention to the other, with the concern to reveal the beauty and grace of each person in the delicate lines of her prints.
«I will be attentive to the condition of these children who live around the cocoa farms. My work on the poetry of childhood, already present in various series, It always involves a commitment, that of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. I hope that my collages can in their own way contribute to opening the eyes to the progress that remains to be achieved in this field. Chocolate can be a luxury product in our societies and the contrast with the conditions of production of the beans is apt to make us question ourselves.
The first stage of a journey that will take Olivia and Julien to the four corners of the world – awaiting the opening of borders – a farm located in Cameroon, run by a woman, the production that constitutes the main activity of a village. The artist will meet the children of the school and take the time to get to know them through artistic creation workshops. She will also establish a dialogue with the orphans of the region. The ability to draw together with the children will be a beautiful way to approach the issue of gluttony, and understand what form it takes for each one, what the taste of chocolate means to each one… Olivia Paroldi approaches these questions in the manner of an ethnologist, and her artistic achievements will bear witness to the encounters that may have nurtured the knowledge of a unique universe. Films and photographs will also document the artistic creation project, and will allow for sharing the moments of grace that will undoubtedly punctuate the creative journey and the genesis of the various works.
Alongside Julien Dechenaud, Olivia Paroldi will seek to transcribe and represent the flavor in her prints. All that flavor, beyond taste, history, and knowledge of taste—the artist will deploy it in a graphic language woven from encounters, in the form of pop-up prints that open and develop with a sense of surprise, as in an unprecedented and initiatory tasting. A game between the open and the closed, the visible and the invisible, appearances and embodied realities.
A memorable story to tell
From the cocoa bean to the bean itself, it’s a whole memory-laden journey, nurtured by the earth’s imprint, shaped by the topography and character of the terroir, the whims of nature, the life of the elements, the vital cycle, which will reveal the specificity of the taste notes. This memory story, Olivia and Julien will transcribe together, each in their own creative field. The typicality of chocolate notes for the artisan of indulgence, the uniqueness of the Other’s story through its relationship to taste for the humanist artist.
After this first step in Cameroon, other cocoa farms, other small producers, other lands, and other continents will be new discoveries and valuable encounters. Taste is a journey into the encounter with the Other.
We can’t wait to discover the works that Olivia Paroldi will bring back from these other places. We can’t wait to also discover the tablets that will concentrate all the power of the unique flavors imprinted by these stories and witnesses of these encounters, tablets that the artist will illustrate with her delicate lines.
