Lu Lin

Drawing inspiration from our previous edition "we are here and there", we came up with a new experiment, "Out of Blue Dinner". Our ultimate objective is to provoke discomfort and stir up controversy to tantalize and to challenge. This immersive dining experience brings gamification to the table, as strangers from all walks of life are brought together to discuss some troublesome topics. By co-creating a series of dinners with our participants, we expect to test and challenge societal expectations and bridge cultural divides by providing a unique and shared experience that transcends differences.

Invited by VHDG for an embedded Artist-in-Residency in Leeuwarden, we move further based on our previous discovery and diving deeper into the integration experience of expats to elaborate on the struggle between “there” and “here”. To understand how the alienation between locals and expats was formed, we set out to research from both side: how expats deal with social expectations while maintaining their identity in via food story, and how the locals in Leeuwarden engage with people from different cultures towards inclusivity.

We aspire to carve out a space for interconnectivity between locals and expats. With this space, we seek to redefine the very essence of inclusivity in the context of cultural integration. “Whether the integration is the only solution for the interconnection?”

It was the final presentation of the two-month residency of Lu Lin who had being doing artistic research in our VHDG AiR, building forth on the work of Homesick Restaurant to create a feeling of home for international residents. Together with co-host Uncle Rudi, a food truck owner in the Friday market in Leeuwarden.

The video “Out of Blue Dinner” is a documentary-style interview that unfolds the story of Uncle Rudi, a food truck owner at Leeuwarden's Friday market. Following his daughter's collection of old photos, Uncle Rudi shares his journey of self-discovery and reorientation through the lens of food. Food wove together his 'there' and 'here.’ As the visuals traverse the past, Uncle Rudi's memories transport viewers to his Indonesian homeland, the remembrance of his parents, and a quest for roots. His narration encapsulates a common experience of being an immigrant — from the disorientation of feeling lost to the pursuit of a sense of belonging.

In the second "Out of Blue Dinner", we co-hosted with Jens(they/them). In the concept of building a family table, they aim to redefine the concept of "home.” They use their own experience of feeling in-between to demonstrate “there” and “here” in the queer perspective.
We utilised some ordinary kitchen objects to create a family table that they imagined.

For the first event of Out of Blue Dinner we were thrilled to work with our first co-host, Jimmy, who had previously been a participant at one of our events. Jimmy, a non-native living in a foreign country, shared his struggles of homesickness and identifying himself in 'here'. Reflecting on the value of Homesick Restaurant, being guest also being host, we co-created the immersive food exeprience with Jimmy.