Post-colonial Moqueca de Peixe, 2022

As part of Kitanda Project—a collaborative initiative between Afro-Brazilian chef Thiago Moura and Portuguese visual artist RitaGT, who has close ties to Angola—we presented a performance at Documenta 2022 in Kassel. Rooted in our ongoing artistic research, the project explores the ritual and action of cooking as a political, performative, and artistic act, using gastronomy and contemporary art as mediums for post-colonial reflection.

For this performance, set within a social kitchen installation, Thiago prepared an European adaptation of moqueca, while Rita, alongside their son Simão, narrated the history of the dish—its origins, the role of palm oil, and the centuries-old connections between Brazil and Portugal. As a critique of capitalism’s voracity and its historical entanglements, the moqueca was ultimately served with an edible €500 note, a denomination withdrawn from circulation due to its association with money laundering and counterfeiting.

Beyond this performance, Kitanda Project is an ongoing inquiry into food, memory, and diaspora. From our base in Portugal, we continue to develop work that challenges imperialist, social, and gender-based power structures—authentic factories of forgetfulness. Our practice seeks to reactivate memory, creating shared spaces for reflection and dialogue.

Our research is rooted in the historical ties between Brazil, Portugal, and the African diaspora, re-establishing connections with our ancestry and rethinking history beyond colonial narratives. Through Kitanda Project, we have built a bridge between Bahia and Viana do Castelo, where we live, deepening the intersections of spirituality, cuisine, and cultural heritage.

We explore not only the rituals and acts of cooking but also the materials and objects that carry ancestral knowledge—clay, ceramics, utensils, and food. What is the place of these diasporic objects and ingredients today? What stories do they hold about resistance, oppression, and survival? What persists from the traditions of sitting together at the table, sharing food as an act of cultural transmission?

During our travels in Bahia, we have sought knowledge about sacred cuisine, food routes, quilombola communities, ritual practices, and traditional ceramic-making techniques. These journeys continue to shape our research, deepening our commitment to food as a vessel for memory, resistance, and transformation.

Rita GT, 2022