The Decorators: Portal Tables

18 Nov 2021-5 Feb 2022

PV 17 Nov 2021, 6-8pm

Sofa Bread, Portal Tables, 2021, 28 mm film. Credit: activated with the performance Resting (2021) by Laura Wilson, performed by Elina Akhmetova and Piedad Seiquer with costumes by Lucie Kordacova. Photography by Sergio Márquez & The Decorators.

Overview

The Decorators is an interdisciplinary design collective founded by Suzanne O’Connell, Carolina Caicedo, Xavi Llarch Font and Mariana Pestana. Their Fellowship project Portal Tables reflects on the paradoxical way in which the pandemic has both vilified microbes and prompted a renewed interest in homemade practices of nurturing microbial life. Taking the idea of commensality - eating together - and extending it beyond the human, Portal Tables considers how microbial bodies participate in such encounters. The project launched with the online video-essay Portal Tables: Connecting Multiscalar Communities and a preview of work staged at the V&A for London Design Festival 2021 before being premiered in full at the Stanley Picker Gallery from 18 November 2021.