MEUH(moo)

Fermentation, the transformation of matter by specific micro-organisms, is experiencing a revival today. Low energy consumption, developing health benefits, this transformation resonates with current considerations of ecology, economy and better living by highlighting a complex and invisible biodiversity, inviting us to rethink our know-how, our tastes and our gestures.

At the frontier of art, design and science, working with fermentation means collaborating with the living and recognizing a non-human culture, decolonizing our views and setting up new means of production, questioning the relationship between nature and culture.

What if cows, symbol of rurality and tradition, became the model of our food production?

A cow eats the grass of the pasture, ruminates, filters, digests and transmits the properties of the terroir to the milk it produces. An ultra-local qualitative process of fermentation. What if this principle was the basis for a rediscovery of the terroir, the soil/bacteria/plant ecosystem, bringing a specificity of taste and an expression of locality?  How can we encourage everyone to change the way they look at the world around them, based on unique taste experiences, synthesizing the notions of pleasure, ecological and social impact?

Fermentation does not require any external energy supply, as the bacteria naturally present spontaneously transform the food. It is therefore a universal, economical and ecological process. Generating essential nutrients, it is also a lever for a healthy and sustainable diet.

The social dimension of certain fermented products (leaven, kombucha...) also makes it the food expression of a "sharing economy".
 
The cow-biomimetic model is a fiction of a possible food transformation model, working jointly on food and imaginary, in order to bring us to think today, a food renewal for tomorrow.

The short video proposed evokes in an artistic way (photographic montage) the invisible part of fermentations and the work of bacteria. It will also show, through diagrams and drawings, how the digestive model of the cow, compared to an ultra-local qualitative process of fermentation, can become a model for our food between taste, know-how and economy. A few images of selected fermentation sites will be presented, combining the words and gestures of those who ferment every day with the fictional and artistic vision developed by Meuh. A voice-over supported by the text sent (subtitled in English) will complete the presentation.