[Candrama] Invitation to participate: Sourdough Starter, "Air de COVID"

[Kim McLeod]

*Please see below for an invitation to participate in a wild sourdough
yeast project from Natalie Doonan*


Dear Canadian theatre and performance community,



This is an invitation to receive, feed, and share wild sourdough yeast and
stories that are integral to this process. The first six people to express
interest by responding to this email will be sent a package of sourdough
starter in the mail. In exchange, you will be asked to contribute visual
documentation of your feeding and baking process, along with a 100-word
written text. The documentation will be curated for possible publication by
Canadian Theatre Review. The deadline for submissions of documentation and
text is *July 31st 2021*, so expressions of interest should be sent
immediately.



Please let us know if you are interested in participating by writing to Ted
Whittall at twhittall at gmail.com, and be sure to include your mailing
address. In addition to sharing your starter with others, participants will
also be encouraged to share bread made from this yeast. Bread-making has
been an act of nourishment for body and soul during this pandemic. This is
a collective performance that aims to foster a sense of community during
and beyond crisis.



In exchange for a bit of wild starter crafted in Montreal, participants are
invited to write a piece of about 100 words. This is a loose guideline. As
you will see below, my own writing (offered as an instigation) is longer.
You can think of this writing as related to the process of making yeast and
bread, and as an opportunity to knead the themes of vitality and virality.
Ted Whittall will curate a selection of contributions to be published on
CTR’s website as part of its next issue.



Feel free to document your process in any way you like, considering that
documentation will be published by CTR in the form of a slideshow. I would
also like to track the movement of the starter on a map, which would
eventually be included on a website for the project. Please provide
coordinates (addresses, GPS coordinates, landmarks, or intersections) to
indicate the places where you have shared the yeast. I would love to hear
your thoughts on this and any other suggestions you may have.



And here is my 100-word(ish) prompt ...



*Sourdough Starter, “Air de COVID”, *Wednesday, 23 September 2020



Yesterday a ‘code orange’ was declared in Montreal, meaning, according to
Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé, that while we are not in
confinement, we should avoid seeing each other ‘at all costs’. Our lives
depend on it. The air represents a threat.



In 1919 avant-garde artist Marcel Duchamp purchased an ‘*ampoule*’ from a
pharmacist in Paris, imbuing it with meaning by titling it *Air de Paris*.
It is now held in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, who
writes that: ‘From a molecular point of view, air is not considered
nothing, but when displayed so carefully in an art museum it seems to be
less than one might expect’. Charged with the aura of this giant spectre of
art history, one wonders what in fact may have been captured in the air of
Paris that year, as another pandemic raged. This distant and perhaps now
sterile vessel is still however, inspiration.



A breath of life. If indeed it can be taken. For some, inspiration grows
increasingly strained if not impossible. The latest research shows that
distance from one another, and masks are most effective, because the
greatest threat of contamination is in the air. Our vitality depends upon
physical distance.



Daily bread is thus an urgent problem for many as food banks relied heavily
on retired seniors, who are now under house arrest, or already departed.



Sourdough is the gift that keeps on giving. It multiplies exponentially,
growing out of control unless it is shared. The other options are to:
freeze, or dry, or discard its excess. I have created this starter from the
air of the second wave in Montreal, Quebec. It is an invitation to multiply
and distribute — even in the face of virality — to trust each other and to
extend our hands.





Thank you for considering this invitation.



In sustenance and solidarity,

Natalie
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