'We Are Here' is a project by the artist duo Anne Fehres and Luke Conroy which celebrates community and cultural heritage through food, sharing and art. For three weeks the artists lived and worked in the rural Southern Italian town of Stigliano. During this period they invited the community to share their personal recipes and the stories associated with them. These various recipes and stories were captured and are now presented as public artworks around Stigliano.

 

Each of the artworks has been inspired by a documentary process whereby the local community talked about their personal recipes during the process of creating them. During this process, the artists captured photographs of the creator, the creation process, the food elements and surrounding objects. Later the artists digitally combined the multiple photographs associated with each recipe into a single photomontage composition, bringing together the diverse elements in a surreal and playful way. Each composition has been digitally printed and is presented in the public space of Stigliano at a ‘larger-than-life’ scale.

 

Each of the installed artworks is celebratory, bringing the recipe and creator from the private space of the home to the public space of the streets. Through this presentation, the local community and a broader audience is encouraged to reflect upon the recipes that hold important cultural value in this place, to find pride in local heritage and connect with each other in new ways.