GELATO MECCANICO
Place: Biennale Interieur, Kortrijk
Year: 2014
Project team: Davide Fabio Colaci, TourdeFork, Lula Ferrari with Laura Doard, Marco Savini, Ludovica Niero
Photography: Claudia Castaldi
Web site: https://interieur.be/biennale/2014/programme/gelato-meccanico

– 21.three | Gelato Meccanico is a project that reinterprets the process of making artisanal ice-cream. The designed space is set up as a vast scenic device in which the guest, through direct visual and physical participation can become a performer in the ancient art of ice-cream making. Every hour or so the process of handmade ice-cream production will begin through all it’s different stages, ending with the hand crank mechanical ice-cream whipping, using White Mountain machines, which function thanks to salt and ice eutectic mixtures. A slow, mechanical and highly sophisticated ritual. The Ancient Romans would mix fresh snow with mulled wine or citrus juices to prepare sorbets but it is only since the seventeenth century, with the discovery of eutectic mixtures that the modern age of ice cream began. By mixing appropriate amounts of sea salt and ice it is possible to reach a sub zero temperature of -21.3°C, the chemical reaction involves adding NaCl (Sodium Chloride) to solid state H2O (Water), the salt melts the ice by lowering the mixtures freezing point and in order for the ice to liquefy it needs to absorb energy from the mixture, therefore lowering the compounds temperature well below zero. It was thanks to the discovery of this chemical principal that the “invention” of ice-cream was made possible.