Amie Thảo + Olli Tumelius are cycling 15,000 miles across the world’s largest landmass, Europe+Asia, to document real people, real stories, and real food.
The Project | Background | Why Food? | Why Cycling? | Where Are We Going? | About Us
This website is in development and will have two core elements:
- A collection of stories from people we meet and share meals with.
- A crowdsourced art project where you can submit your stories.
Our aim is to build connections between people using the space of shared meals by recording diverse stories and by inviting people to document food-related missions.
Soon, you will be able to browse through a wide range of approaches to storytelling and make a contribution of your own.
If you are interested in participating in the art project before it is released to the public, send us a message for more information!
This project grew out of a solo cycling trip that I (Amie) took in 2011.
My love of food and cooking led me to spend a lot of time in kitchens. I shared meals with people in 15 countries, from the Netherlands to Italy.
Here are some of the people I met:
Didem from Turkey survived a terrorist attack in Istanbul.
“With the force of the explosion I, together with the window behind me, flew towards the manager who was shaking my hand to say hello. The rest is a blur.”
Kathi from Austria became a mother at age 17.
“My mother made her friends guess which of her kids were going to have a baby. People assumed it was one of my older brothers. They were shocked to find out that it was me.”
Marco from Italy received a kidney transplant twenty years ago.
“I, like all of my friends that are organ recipients, think about our donors and their families daily. We live because of their generous act.”
After 5,000 miles, I was inspired to create a project that collected stories in an intentional way and share them with a wider audience.
Besides being delicious, food serves as a catalyst for storytelling and grounds the story in a tangible way.
For example, here are six different breakfasts:
Just from these images, you might be able to guess a few things about the people, culture, and places.
The International Supper Club seeks to explore and investigate some of the reasons behind the food and share our discoveries with you.
And, for those who are curious, these meals (from top to bottom) were shared with a school teacher in Denmark, a retired Jewish-American professor in the Netherlands, a Ukrainian graduate student in Slovenia, a mother in Finland, Vietnamese immigrants in Germany, and an environmental conservationist in Poland.
Human-powered, environmentally-friendly, cost-effective and fun. On bikes we are fast enough to cross deserts without going insane and slow enough to say hello to everybody along the way.
On February 29, we are cycling from the west coast of continental Europe to the east coast of Asia. Our route is flexible and subject to weather and politics.
Amie Thảo is an artist from Seattle, Washington.
Olli Tumelius is a musician from Helsinki, Finland.
We have two small bikes. 
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