Stories and Hopes of the Arrivals to Rhine-Main Archipelago

Leseraum: FOOD, CULTURE AND HERITAGE

This time, our discussion will unfold around four short texts: Isabella Z. Borisova, Vasiliy V. Illarionov, Tatyana V. Illarionova: Cultural Heritage in the Food Traditions of the Sakha People, Sneha Pan: Migration and Food Culture, Saltanat Shoshanova: The Cutter, Aliya Bolatkhan: Eating with the hands: imperial knowledge and the making of the five-finger dish “beshbarmak”

All texts explore the notion of food and the importance of food traditions and embodied knowledges of Central and Northern Asia. We will start with a prose-piece by Saltanat Shoshanova, exploring deeply-rooted family traditions of dough-making as opposed to personal queer experiences. It will be followed by a thorough inside study of the gastronomy of the Sakha people and its reflection in the Sakha language, both representing modes of resistance against Soviet colonialism. Similarly, Aliya Bolatkhan’s paper researches the construction of the Russian Empire’s colonial knowledge on the food traditions of Central Asia. Lastly, Sneha Pan’s text delves into the notion of migration and creating a new sense of belonging through the food practices.

The reading format remains the same: always nearby and usually online. The frame is open:

• each reads the text independently, partial readings are possible
• each brings to the meeting an association (nearbyness) with the text we have read. It can be anything: poetry, image, video, manifesto, toy, object, your body... anything
• we are discussing collectively our nearbyness-associations.

The reading will take place online via Zoom. Registration via email: de.colonialanguage@gmail.com

The main language of the discussions will be English. We will also be providing multilingual interpretation to enable participation in different languages.

The online readings build on the outcomes of the workshop ‘Stories and Hopes of New Arrivals in the Rhine-Main Archipelago’ (May 2026) and continue the programme ‘Reading Room: The Metamorphosis of New Arrivals and Hosts’. Over the coming months, participants will read and discuss five texts that explore the pluriverse of migration, exile, diaspora, displacement, memory, belonging, home, (destroyed) habitats, embodied knowledge and sensory memory, with a particular focus on food as a vehicle for memory and narrative.

• 20 June 2026: Ecocide in Ukraine: The ecological costs of the Russian war
• 25 July 2026: The Aral Sea: Untold stories from before, during and after the lake
• 15 August 2026: Food, culture and cultural heritage
• 5 September 2026: Armenian cuisine: Facts, fiction and folklore
• 3 October 2026: The open veins of Latin America

The de_colonialanguage collective, Manca Arnuš and Ani Menua (X3 PostOst Agency, PostOstCafe) bring together expertise in the fields of art, activism, and research within the context of migration processes and alternative knowledge production. They conduct transcultural work with diaspora communities and develop formats that combine public space, collective, and artistic practice.