Céline Pelcé studied space design at the école Boulle then culinary design at the ESAD in Rheims, and since 2012 has been using food as an ephemeral construction material, bearer of a sensory poetry that explores territories. In a collaborative, interdisciplinary and multicultural dynamic, Céline Pelcé translates her research into edible installations, performances or collective dinners. Through the performance “Summer has bitten farewell” presented in 2020 in collaboration with the chef Marente Van der Valk, in particular Céline Pelcé proposed a dinner structured by culinary rituals to end summer, and celebrate the transition towards the budding autumn.

She regularly carries out her research in artists’ residencies, particularly in Europe, and since 2016 in the USA and Japan, where the territory, History and local food culture nourish her projects to a great extent. Questions of connections to borders, rituals, and time are translated as such through these participative experiences, where food is used as a catalyser, allowing physical as well as imaginary elements to be ingested and digested.

UMAMI, TASTE OF TIME AND DEPTH

At Villa Kujoyama, Céline Pelcé’s project is built around the search for Umami. This taste perception qualified in Japanese culture is not just a taste, but a taste concept with a spiritual incidence, connected to notions of time and space. The concept of Umami is relatively known in gastronomy circles, however western culinary traditions do not address it. During her residency, Céline Pelcé will seek to translate Umami, through culinary experiments, including with products not traditionally found in Japanese cuisines, as well as through performance and space measures. These experiments will lead to the creation of immersive and participative experiences in order to capture the imagination of the person eating and invite them to have a sensory awareness of the concept of Umami.