From Sustenance to Signifier. Food in Contemporary MENA Art.

Food occupies a central position within the cultural and symbolic economies of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). As both substance and signifier, it mediates relations between body, culture and community, marking sites where identity can be negotiated and contested. Within artistic practice, food can push beyond sustenance to become a medium of representation and critique. This text explores how artists from the region mobilise culinary motifs and rituals as aesthetic strategies, transforming the table into a stage where collective identity, conflict and continuity are negotiated.