Cooking with the Tsou

Photography Exhibition and conference

FROM 10 TO 26 NOVEMBER 2021

Institut Ricci (Centre Sèvres)
35 bis rue de Sèvres
75006 Paris

Exhibition « Cooking with the Tsou » by Caroline Mouangvong

From 10 to 26 november 2021

Vernissage on 10 november at 16h, invitation only

The result of fieldwork conducted in 2019 in the Alishan Mountains region of Taiwan, Caroline Mouangvong’s exhibition “Dans la marmite des Tsou” (Cooking with the Tsou) explores the customs and food practices of this community in both secular and sacred settings. From the cultivation of plants to their cooking and transformation, Caroline Mouangvong presents, through her photographs, the importance of food in the daily life of family and village sociability, as well as in the ritual practices associated with traditional ceremonies.

Acquiring the photographic panels

Visitors can purchase the photographic panels of the exhibition. The panels of your choice will be given to you in exchange for a donation of €10 per panel to the association “Les petits frères des pauvres“, with which we have partnered for the occasion. Click below to see the detailed procedure.

  1. Check the list of panels.
  2. Fill in our form to make your reservation.
  3. Make your donation on the Petits frères des pauvres website, at a rate of €10 per panel.
  4. Within 72 hours of completing our form, send us your donation receipt (or alternatively, the confirmation email) to evenementtsp@ehess.fr to confirm your booking. If we do not hear from you within 72 hours, we will have to put your reserved panels back on sale.
  5. You can collect your panels in person at the Centre de Sèvres on Friday 26 November 2021 from 6.30 to 8.30 pm. Please bring your ID and your donation receipt.

Conference: “Food and Social Sciences”

10 November at 5.30 pm

Speakers: Françoise Sabban (EHESS-IEHCA) and Sandrine Ruhlmann (CNRS-MNHN).
Moderator: Samia Ferhat (Paris Nanterre-EHESS).

Free admission subject to availability. (Health pass and mask required)

Françoise Sabban is Director of Studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales and President of the Scientific Council of the European Institute of Food Cultures and History (IEHCA – Tours). She is the author of numerous articles and books on the history and anthropology of food in the Chinese world and Europe. She has published, among others, Le temps de manger. Alimentation, emploi du temps et rythmes sociaux 1993 (with M. Aymard & C. Grignon); La pasta: storia e cultura di un cibo universale, 2000 (with S. Serventi), trans. in French, Italian, English, Japanese); Atlante dell’alimentazione e della gastronomia, Vol 1; Risorse, Scambi, Consumi, 2; Cucine, pasti convivialità (with M. Montanari, 2004); Un aliment sain dans un corps sain – Perspectives historiques, (with F. Audouin-Rouzeau, 2007). http://cecmc.ehess.fr/index.php?2619

Sandrine Ruhlmann is an ethnologist, Mongolian, in charge of research at the CNRS (MNHN, UMR 7206 Eco-anthropology), works on the food practices of the Halh in Mongolia, based on techniques, and is interested in the central question of food sharing and hospitality in connection with family happiness. Since 2013, her research has focused in parallel on the conception and management of animal diseases in a post-communist context. Since 2014, she has been preparing a study on the process of food compromise as a strategy of resistance for Mongolians under domination. Finally, since 2021, she has been conducting new research on pastoral techniques in the Aspe valley in France. She is the author of L’appel du bonheur. Le partage alimentaire mongol (Paris, CEMS-EPHE, 2015) and of Inviting happiness. Food sharing in Post-communist Mongolia (Leiden, Boston, Brill, 2019, revised and expanded translation of L’appel du Bonheur, 2015).

This event is organized as part of the Spotlight Taiwan Program.