The Telling of the Oaks
The Telling of the Oaks is an on-going project creating close ties with the world of oaks, in its nourishing, medicinal and artistic dimensions. The project aims to pursue and materialize individual and collective research into the knowledge and stories associated with eating oak acorns and the uses of this tree.
This project was initiated during a residency between 2022 and 2023 at La Maison Composer, a research and creative center in Puisaye (France). During this period, research were conducted on the knowledge and stories associated with eating oak acorns and the uses of this tree in Burgundy, and specifically in the regions of Puisaye and Morvan.
Structured around of a futuristic tale nourishing the different parts of the series of works, The Telling of the Oaks blurs the boundaries between art, craft and food production. Through workshops and meetings with anthropologists, basket-makers, historians, ethnobotanists, local actors and inhabitants, the aim was to interweave the gestures involved in collecting and then transforming oak acorns into flour, with the gestures of oral tradition, and the creation and transmission of narrative, artistic, craft and sculptural forms.
Basket-weaving works done in collaboration with Hevann Milcent, Romuald Bardot and Vincent Schuller.
A book untitled Le dît des chênes (The Telling of the Oaks) interweaves poetry, essays, stories and ethnobotany with a series of photographs from walks and various workshops carried out during the residency at Maison Composer between October 2022 and June 2023.
Photos credits : © Thérèse Verrat & Vincent Toussaint
Editions Composer (Composer Publishings)
Texts : Etienne de France, Vincent Balland, Capucine Crusnier, Ann Guillaume
Edited by Tom Bücher
To purchase the book
Workshops: from acorns harvest, basket weaving to acorn flour
Acorn recipes for “The Telling of the Oaks”, dinner and lecture of archaeobotanist Philippe Marinval, at La Maison Composer , November 2023
