Restauro [Restoration], 2016

Jorge Menna Barreto
1970, Araçatuba, São Paulo, Brazil. Lives in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Modern crop and livestock farming is the human activity that impacts and transforms the planet the most, affecting biodiversity, compacting the soil, polluting rivers and clearing forests. The Restauro [Restoration] (2016) project raises questions about the development of eating habits and their relationship with the environment, landscape, climate and life on earth. The work operates as a restaurant, in partnership with Vitor Braz, whose menu, prepared with the nutritionist and chef Neka Menna Barreto and the Escola ComoComo de Ecogastronomia in São Paulo, prioritizes the diversity of the plant kingdom originating in agro-forestry. This space for nutrition proposes a metabolic and digestive experience that is both physical and mental. Its ambience, carried out in partnership with O Grupo Inteiro, emerged from the idea of microclimates. The audios connected to the work were made by Marcelo Wasem, mainly in agroforests, where you can perceive another moment in the life of the foods that are brought for our consumption. Restauro encourages awareness about how we use our land and the global consequences of our choices. By understanding our digestive system as a sculptural tool, diners become participants in an environmental sculpture in progress where the act of nourishing oneself regenerates and shapes the landscape in which we live.