From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
The Seven Loaves Sourdough & Ritual Bread Cycle
For other bread and ritual meal adaptations, see The Seven Loaves—A Bread Ritual and Cookbook Cycle in Addis Ababa and The Hotdog Liturgy — A Lagos Street-Food Cycle and Ritual.
The Seven Loaves Sourdough & Ritual Bread Cycle (2023–present) is a durational culinary-performance work by Senegalese-French baker and artist Binta Diallo , staged across community kitchens in Dakar, Lagos, Addis Ababa, and Bamako. Across seven days, Diallo bakes seven ritual loaves, each named and shaped to correspond to a chapter of Beach Surgery. The work incorporates the cycle's unbreaking logic: each loaf is shaped as an unbroken loop, incorporating motifs of Leif's three injuries — one loaf unmarked, one incised with a cross, one sealed with a "heartbeat" indent on its crown. Diallo documents each bake in video; the cycle culminates in a shared meal where loaves are broken and distributed to the community. The 2024 Dakar edition was filmed and published as a limited print cookbook (78pp, 500 copies) with embedded QR codes linking to video, recipes in French, Wolof, and English, and witness accounts from participants. Fresh loaves (at events): 500–800 CFA). Cookbook 3,500–4,800 CFA / €35 . [citation needed] Won the 2024 Dakar Biennale Culinary Arts Prize. Summer 2024 edition scheduled for Addis Ababa; autumn edition in Ouagadougou.