Corpse Cookie Publication Launch Dinner

an intimate dinner featuring a surprise menu of delicious vegan and gluten-free dishes, and a corpse cookie poetry publication!

Sini Silveri’s poetry is presented in multiple languages in a Corpse Cookie publication by Ei Mainoksia, Kiitos, commissioned by curator Katie Lenanton for the exhibition Marraskahvila (Death Cafe).

We celebrate the publication on Friday 13 November with an intimate dinner cooked by Doğa Çal, Hanan Sneih, and Maria (Masha) Glazunova. Join us for a surprise multi-course menu of delicious vegan and gluten-free dishes. The menu references different memories, customs, rituals, and aesthetics that the cooks associate with community gatherings during times of bereavement.

The evening includes eating within an exhibition; poetry and text presentations; the possibility to taste experimental beverages; and a limited edition corpse cookie publication and warm drink as the final course.

The publication is inspired by Victorian-era traditions, in which a biscuit was placed on the deceased to absorb sins and prepare them for the afterlife. The corpse cookie was then consumed by the region’s designated sin eater—often a social pariah—who was hired to eat, cleanse, and carry another’s sins through ingestion, in the hope of reducing the deceased’s time in purgatory. Black wax-sealed funeral biscuits were also common gifts to mourners in this era.

Welcome to experience a contemporary reworking of this tradition, and join a celebration of local artists and contemporary publishing practices!

We offer sliding scale pricing between €25-45. By paying the highest amount that you’re able, you make it possible for others with less access to resources to join this celebration.

Doors open 17:30, welcome to spend time with the artworks in the Marraskahvila (Death Cafe) exhibition

Dinner service starts from 18

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Doğa Çal is a Helsinki-based artist who cooks and works with video, installation, and performance, responding to sites and situations to explore belonging, care, disability, and accessibility, with people.

Maria (Masha) Glazunova is back to a beloved kitchen for another pop-up, after previously working on menus that highlighted mämmi and espresso.

Hanan Sneih is a cook and former entrepreneur based in Helsinki who co-founded Café Damascus, a Syrian fusion food business in 2017. Coming from hospitality and cultural event organising, she’s drawn to the way food connects people, holds memories, and helps them feel at home.

Ei Mainoksia, Kiitos! (EiM,K!) is an independent art publishing initiative by Paola Jalili that prioritises sustainable book production processes, experiments with unconventional distribution methods, and highlights the time and labour behind the act of publishing. 

Sini Silveri is a poet whose multidisciplinary art is gently anarchic. Their collection of prose poems, Titaanidisko, won the Kalevi Jäntti Prize in 2020.