Atanor

Good to eat, good to mean: this is the paradigm of the extreme radicality of bread. Humble and polysemous mixture of the elements (earth, air, water, and fire), consubstantial with man: it is not only man who makes bread, but it is also bread that makes man. In the sacred act of eating, it is through bread that we appropriate meanings, and the body of the symbol becomes a body of flesh.
Bread preparation techniques have been handed down from generation to generation, from mother to daughter for centuries. A secret cultivated in the quiet of circular time. A ritual that involves precise times and gestures, the wisdom of doing, acts and signs, and particular physical conditions. Just like magical words and spells, the ritual is kept secret and shared only orally. The sacred act of eating is therefore prefigured by the magical act of preparation, in a complex consumption ritual that has variations throughout the peninsula.
Specific objects are needed to perform the ritual. Atanor pays homage to the Italian tradition, emphasizing and amplifying the performative and ritual aspects linked to the preparation of bread, and to the phase of refreshing the mother yeast, a living matrix and object of care.

From this meeting a project was born for the care of sourdough, an element we can define as matrix of life or, better, pure alchemy.
The object was born from a long study phase, from which emerged the need to enhance the sourdough refreshment phase as a key moment in the preparation of the bread dough.

In addition to the technical features that allow us to innovate and facilitate refreshment operations, Atanor also wants to be an elegant and noble home for sourdough, raising it to the one of main element of the kitchen.
The delicacy of the glass is an invitation to weigh every gesture when preparing the yeast, thus emphasizing the ritual dimension of the refreshment: every gesture becomes sacred.
The formal inspiration comes from alchemical imagery. The Atanor is the oven whose heat is used to carry out alchemical digestion. The term goes back to the Greek Α-Θάνατος or “deathless” to indicate the ability of the furnace to work endlessly.
Atanor is a microcosm that symbolizes the macrocosm, and in which the transmutation of the elements takes place.

Atanor is a vessel for mother yeast in liquid culture. The shape is designed to accompany and monitor the yeast refreshment phase preparatory to bread making.

The refreshed yeast should be placed in the inner jar. Pot moldings help monitor growth until it doubles in size. The Atanor can measure 100g, corresponding to one section of the jar at refreshment and two sections at doubling in volume; or 200g, corresponding to two sections for refreshments and three for doubling the volume.

The external jar must be filled with hot water to create an optimal climate for the growth of the mother yeast. The water can be replaced during the process with more hot water, until the yeast inside has doubled in volume. The process has a variable duration, depending on environmental conditions and the health of the yeast.
Atanor can accommodate and store leftover yeast from preparation until the next refreshment.

Pot moldings help monitor growth until it dou- bles in size.

The Atanor can measure 100g, corresponding to one section of the jar at refreshment and two sections at doubling in volume; or 200g, corre- sponding to two sections for refreshments and three for doubling the volume.

Fill the external jar with hot water to create an optimal climate for the growth of the mother yeast.

Replace the water during the process with more hot water, until the yeast inside has doubled in volume. The process has a variable duration, depending on environmental conditions and the health of the yeast.

Atanor can accommodate and store leftover ye- ast from preparation until the next refreshment.