When Art Meets Real Bread
19 July 2012
The building now contains several artist studios and hosts exhibitions and art projects
The Cattle Depot: When art meets real bread
In this sentimental post our new blog contributor, Gregoire Michaud shares with us his reflections and experience of bread making to bring art and cultural change.
The Cattle Depot: When art meets real bread
Built in 1908, the Ma Tau Kok Cattle Depot was originally designed as a slaughterhouse and it was used as one until 1999. The slaughtering activities were moved out of town and the superb red bricked house was renovated. In 2001 the site re-opened as an artist village where people from anywhere and everywhere would meet to share a common passion for art. The building now contains several artist studios and hosts exhibitions and art projects – a place displaying colourful painting, sculpture, painted glass art, writing, musicians, concert, movies, theatre and everything in between is represented and found here.
The art of baking
Everything except maybe baking; to me, baking and especially baking real bread is an art form unlike any other. Of course, I am not talking about pouring a bag of pre-mixed flour and water into one of these Gotham-City-like bread makers, but more about having bread with fully developed features, using noble flours, natural fermentation techniques and the proper know-how of good bread making skills.
Wing recycles aluminum cans and other materials to transform them into beautiful sculptures
I was invited by our good friend Wing, who happens to be the artist behind the art produced at House Nº1 in the village. Wing diligently recycles aluminum cans, glass bottles and other materials to transform them with a genius trait into beautiful pieces of art (see photo 3). For instance, he grounds different coloured glass and organises classes with children where he encourages them to create their own designs. He will then bake the ground glass in an incredibly hot oven where the powder melts and combines together as a beautiful glass tile (see photos 1 above). The children also learn about recycling; how it benefits them and society, as well as being creative in producing useful art. On this particular night, we didn’t do much of Wing’s traditional art. Instead we had a couple of friends playing the guitar, we sung songs and the young children created plaster moulds that would be later filled with melted recycled materials.
The children getting ready to bake wonderful Schiacciata breads
Secretly without them knowing, in my backpack I brought along with me a few kilos of bread flour, some eggs from my friend Garry who raises chickens in the New Hong Kong Territories, a few additional ingredients which included black olives, fresh garlic, roasted pine nuts and herbs to bake wonderful Schiacciata breads. We mixed and kneaded the dough by hand and after the intensive labour (those of you who know about bread making will understand how much kneading is required); we had to wait several hours before baking it (to allow for proving). The children had a blast kneading the dough and shaping their breads – of course it couldn’t have ended-up in any other way than covered with flour! Shaped as simple flat round breads, proofed and brushed lightly with rosemary olive oil. Our breads baking in the oven started to disperse their heavenly fumes all over the workshop…our eyes started rolling and stomach craved for slices of the freshly baked loaves. We were hungry. When it finally reached the golden brown crust it deserved, we sliced the long-awaited loaves and shared it with everyone; the bread literally disappeared within minutes!
Feelings of positivity and inspiration
Sharing and eating freshly baked bread, sharing music, sharing the passion for simple and beautiful art goes hand-in-hand together in my mind. I see something common when baking bread, when we were kneading the dough with the flour swirling, mixing with the ambience of the old rustic building around us along with the old wooden carpentry and seeing the children playfully smiling; I experienced something I seldom have done before in Hong Kong. Perhaps it’s a feeling more people should get to experience nowadays, especially when we live in a city where these sort of feelings seem to have been forgotten; beautiful art and real-life experiences has been too often replaced by an omnipresent and hypnotising digital world.
Let’s get the scales out and get baking!
Ma Tau Kok Cattle Depot
63 Ma Tau Kok Road
Kowloon
Hong Kong
Written and photos by Missie and Friends contributor Gregoire Michaud in Our Local Eats. {Thank you Gregoire for sharing your most recent baking experiences with us! A very touching and a lovely read.}
Missie Cindz
