Food is located at the interface between nature and culture. It goes beyond biological necessity, because its realisation is entangled in the mesh of cultural, economic and political requirements. Cooking is usually the responsibility of women, hence the preparation and sharing of food is a space for the articulation of women's voices. As a mother's and wife's task, a binder of social relations and a carrier of memory; a source of creativity and pleasure, but at the same time an unavoidable part of an exhausting routine, cooking also appears as an important element in the work of contemporary female visual artists. In the research project “The Artist's Menu. Identity and narratives about food”, prof. Dorota Koczanowicz from the University of Wrocław's Institute of Cultural Studies, focuses on selected female artists in order to confront the language of their painting and performance statements with the experience of everyday life. She analyses various artistic and cultural objects, including works of art, scientific texts, biographies and objects of everyday use as interrelated, heterarchical elements that make up an identity narrative. The stay within the Bekker NAWA programme at the University of Gastronomic Sciences (UNISG) in Pollenzo is an excellent opportunity to refine the interpretative tools in collaboration with Prof. Nicola Perullo, creator of the concept of 'haptic taste as a task'. In his view, taste is not a static form of individual identity, but a processual, changeable form of education for the good life. Culinary choices are thus treated as an important element of the ethical relationship with one's own body and environment. prof. Koczanowicz and prof. Perullo are also editing a book together entitled “Food and Somaesthetics”. The book will come out in the Brill publishing house in 2023.

Another dimension of their collaboration is the invitation of prof. Koczanowicz to the PhD Faculty Committee of the PhD programme, "Ecogastronomy, Food Sciences and Food Cultures", which is being developed in cooperation between UNISG and the University of Turin.