Sight is absolutely the favourite sense of Mimmo Jodice, though he says “the exercise of seeing predisposes the taste and amplifies the food pleasure”. He remembers his youth in the ancient centre of Naples during the hard postwar period and some rituals linked to the household hearth such as the smell of coffee beans and the foods of the feasts. In his memory there are the vivid images of the hen sacrificed on the occasion of Sunday lunch, and those of the person who sacrifices Easter lamb in the neighbourhood of Sanità. Above all else, he regrets the periodicity of food of the past, but his madeleine still remains bread dressed in oil and salt, a very simple dish that he still eats for breakfast. The Mediterranean is his source of inspiration. Thinking of it as the cradle of the Mediterranean Diet, it invokes the sun, the sea, the scents, the land, the old olive tree groves that seem to him sculptures, the vineyards, barrels, red wine, the grain feasts, but he also thinks of the symbols of Mediterranean foods in the Baroque still-life paintings that inspired his photographic series Eden, and another on Mediterranean breads, planned with friend Predrag Matvejević, but remained unfinished. 

Interview by: Helga Sanità
Video and editing by: Davide Mancini
Subtitles by: Maria Funiciello
Document by: Helga Sanità Translation by: Rossella Galletti
MedEatResarch – Center of Social Research on the Mediterranean Diet of the University of Naples Suor Orsola Benincasa, head by Marino Niola and Elisabetta Moro Realized: 11-03-2013
Mimmo Jodice

Mimmo Jodice

Date of birth: 26-12-1956
City: Napoli
Education: High school
Profession: Artist, Official of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage
Language: Italian

Video table of contents

- 00:37 Sigth and taste: the appetite comes with watching
- 02:30 Memories of the postwar period in the ancient centre of Naples
- 03:14 The household hearth
- 04:06 The smell of roasted coffee beans
- 04:42 The food rituals in christhmas and easter
- 04:55 The sunday chicken
- 05:32 The lambs sacrificer in saint friday
- 06:17 Pasta dried in the chairs
- 07:10 Bread, oil and salt for breakfeast
- 07:55 The lost seasonality
- 08:14 Genovese and pasta with potatos and “provola” cheese
- 09:09 The Mediterranean
- 10:25 The Mediterranean Diet transalted in images
- 11:17 The baroque still-life paintings - eden
- 11:47 Red wine versus beer
- 12:17 The meeting with predrag matvejevic in Capri
- 13:28 The unfinished work on bread in the mediterranean

Geographic information

Country: IT
Region: Campania
City: Napoli
District: NA
Locality: Posillipo
Altitude: 17 m s.l.m.

Links and attachements
References

Bibliography:
Jodice, M., Eden, testo di Germano Celant, Leonardo Arte, Milano 1998

Jodice, M., Isolario Mediterraneo, testo di Predrag Matvejevic, Federico Motta Editore, Milano 2000
Matvejevic, P., Breviario Mediterraneo
Matvejevic, P.,Pane Nostro, Saggi Corsari, Garzanti, Milano, 2010

Sitography:
 http://www.mimmojodice.it/