NOWHERE KITCHEN

cooking leftovers, our philosophy



cooking as performance

Nowhere Kitchen is an art of performance cooking based on ‘cooking with what is there’. It began as a cooking and performance research project initiated and developed by Pepe Dayaw in 2012. It is based on the philosophies of leftovers or the improvised way of making something happen with what is there. Through the creative use of leftovers, a contemporary and organic theatre based on cooking animates any specific local situation, giving it a global twist. It is inspired by vocabularies of experience of migrant bodies and their embodied knowledge of intuitive fusion and survival. The inspiration and style of Nowhere Kitchen is derived from the Filipino experience and ingenuity whose very concept and migrating identity came out of the people’s creative use of leftovers to survive from many layers of colonisations.

Volksbuehne Berlin, 2016

about pepe dayaw

Pepe Dayaw is a performance artist and choreographer working with mixing of disciplines and the liquifying of spaces to create an atmosphere. He is a the initiator and founder of Nowhere Kitchen. For more info, visit his website or read more about his experiences of cooking and migrating through this site’s blog.


leftovers and serendipities

Pepe Dayaw in a private house in Lavapies, Madrid. 2012

In 2012, Pepe Dayaw, out of his own need for survival and adaptation into a new country, initiated a practice in Madrid where he made leftover dinners in private houses. Numerous meals and feasts were created out of what was found in people’s fridges and the gathering of leftovers. Through word of mouth, the leftover dinners serendipitously ended up traveling to four continents and evolved in each iteration into a fluid form of social theatre; a unique way of hospitality and service that can migrate and collaborate with any given place, stage or context.


‘cooking with what is there’ interview with Pepe Dayaw

Ufertudios, Berlin. 2015.

migrant itineraries of a DIY and word of mouth project

Nowhere Kitchen has traveled to the following cities and places…

Madrid. Valencia. Asturias. Brussels. Berlin. Mostoles. Bilbao. Rio de Janeiro. Sao Paulo. Munich. Stockholm. Oxford. London. Belgrade. Antwerp. Bern. Tallinn. Gerswalde. Piedmonte. Firenze. Le Marche. Salvador da Bahia. Ilha da Boipeba. Bali. Singapore. Kuala Lumpur. Paris. Tallinn. Karlsruhe. Zurich. Mecklenburg-Vorpommen. Brandenburg. Frankfurt. Vevey. Winnipeg. Hamburg. Amsterdam. Geneva. Larnaca. Ile du Levant. Budapest. Potsdam. Manila;

Leftover Lunch Flyer at Oxford Symposium of Food and Cookery. 2014

Leftover Cooking has been performed in the following artistic spaces, cultural venues and festivals…

Living Room Festival (Madrid). La Xata La Rifa Festival (Asturias). Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo. Month of Performance Art-Berlin. La Cosa en Casa Festival (Bilbao). Spielart Festival (Munich). Kanuti Saal (Tallinn). Phosphorus (Sao Paulo). Oxford Symposium of Food and Cookery. Markthalle Neun (Berlin). Agora Collective (Berlin). Entretempo Gallery (Berlin). B-Tour / Belgrade Theatre Festival. Royal Technical University (Stockholm). Karslruhe Insitute of Technology. Glogauer Air (Berlin). Bone Performance Art Festival (Bern). Hochschule für Tanz-Uferstudios (Berlin). Kunstraum Bethanien (Berlin). Espacio B (Madrid). Tallinn Art Hall. Volksbühne (Berlin). Parc de la Villette (Paris). Toni Areal (Zurich). Green Papaya Art Projects (Manila). Rumah Sanur (Bali). Non Gallery (Berlin). Sophiensaele (Berlin). Kunsthaus Mousonturm (Frankfurt). Notafe Festival (Viljandi). Teatro Pradillo (Madrid). Forthwith Festival (Winnipeg). Centro de Cultura Conde Duque (Madrid). Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik (Berlin). Floating University (Berlin).

Volksbühne Roter Salon, Berlin. 2015

Pepe Dayaw has given Nowhere Kitchen lectures, seminars and workshops for students and enthusiasts of and organized by:

Slow Food University (Bra / Berlin). Ted X Talks at Jacob University (Bremen). Faculty of Theatre, University of Amsterdam. Weisensee School of Art and Design (Berlin). Kraak Voer, De Studio (Antwerp). Studio Fanelsa (Berlin / Oranienburg). Bard University (Berlin). Philippine Embassy (Berlin). University of Arts, Faculty of Architecture (Berlin)

The Nowhere Kitchen was developed thanks to supported residencies and DIY temporal space projects in:

Panorama Festival (Rio de Janeiro). Nowhere Kitchen Project Space at Wipperstrasse 12 (Berlin). Agora Collective (Berlin). Lanchonete Project (Sao Paulo). Villa Tereze House Foundation (Le Marche). Forth Projects (Winnipeg). Sari-Sari Project Space at Lichtenrader Strasse 49 (Berlin). Fabrik: International Theater for Dance (Potsdam)


press

Pepe Dayaw cooking people’s leftovers at the Spielart Festival; featured in Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich. 2013

Süddeutsche Zeitung, November 2013
Andrew & Caitlin Webb-Ellis, May 2013
Ceecee Berlin, January 2014
Nomy Blog, May 2015
Berlin Loves You, June 2015
Das Marktschwärmer, October 2015
Berner Zeitung, December 2015
Elephant Journal, December 2015
Bossa FM, April 2016
Genuss Hannover, 2016
Freunde von Freunden, July 2016
Semi-domesticated, July 2016
die Tageszeitung, August 2016
Heritage Radio Network, August 2016
Savoteur,
Muxmaeuschenwild Magazin, November 2016
Editorial Concreta, December 2016
Realce Tropical Baiana, December 2016
O Globo, February 2017
Frankfurt Tipp, April 2017
La Liberté, November 2017
24 Heures Lausanne, November 2017
Hotellerie Gastronomie Zeitung, November 2017
Winnipeg Free Press, February 2018

Stockholm, 2015

Videos: (from top) Bali, 2016 by Andre Hostalacio; Madrid, 2012 by Centro de Arte dos de Mayo; Berlin, 2015 by Jutta Dämer / Photos: (from top), Bruno Granja, Jake Wilson (poster design), Andi Weiland