Hosted at Serendipity Arts Festival 2024
Facilitated by Shubhra Chatterjee

In the rush of daily life, our relationship with food often becomes mechanical — a task rather than an experience. The Body and Food, a thoughtful, movement-based workshop facilitated by Shubhra Chatterjee, sought to gently restore this connection by bringing attention back to the senses and the body.

Drawing on the pedagogical philosophies of Paulo Freire and the theatre-based techniques of Augusto Boal, the session invited participants to reharmonise their bodies through movement, reflection, and shared experience. By doing so, it created a space for participants to explore their most instinctive, unspoken relationships with food.

Key highlights included:

• Movement exercises designed to sharpen sensory awareness and bodily memory around food.

• Reflections on how modern life desensitises our engagement with what we eat, and how consciously reclaiming this relationship can foster greater presence and pleasure.

• Group activities that used theatre and body-based methodologies to prompt conversations about food access, identity, labour, and belonging.

• Encouraging participants to critically examine their place within larger food systems and the cultural politics of eating, hunger, and abundance.

This workshop offered participants a rare, introspective pause — to listen, feel, and taste more attentively, while reflecting on how the body itself carries histories, habits, and wisdom about food.

About Shubhra Chatterjee:
Shubhra is a filmmaker, researcher, and facilitator whose practice focuses on food systems, oral history, and embodied knowledge. She designs workshops that use theatre, movement, and storytelling to deepen public conversations around food, culture, and identity.