Making Mortzilla

 

“You’ll never leave a Basque kitchen hungry,” says Marie Jausoro-Day, who helps tie sausages for Boise’s Mortzilla Dinner & Bazaar. Every fall, a group of Basques in Boise gathers at a nearby farm to harvest leeks; later on that week, they spend dozens of hours in the kitchen making the sausage–all the while, passing on ideas about what it means to be Basque.

The “Making Mortzilla” exhibit explores how the act of sausage-making preserves recipes, cultural traditions and a set of values among Basques in Boise, keeping up connections to a rural, agrarian culture in Idaho.

Presented in audio postcards and photo portraits, this project seeks to highlight the artistry of sausage-making and preserve reflections from sausage-makers, each of whom plays a unique role in producing this sausage for Basques in Boise and the wider community.

“Making Mortzilla” is produced by Olivia Weitz and Arlie Sommer, with funding support from the Boise City Department of Arts and History, and in collaboration with Euzkaldunak, Inc. and the Basque Museum & Cultural Center.

             

 

Olivia and Arlie would like to thank the Boise Basque community for sharing their stories and inviting us into their spaces. This project would not have been possible without the input of many, including Andrea Goyhenetche-Krueger, Jerry Aldape, Sean Aucutt, Marie Jausoro-Day, Ed Orbea, Martin Bilbao, Annie Gavica, Tyler Smith, Amanda Bielmann, John Bieter, Amy Fackler, Karen Ellis, and many others who took time to help with logistics, give advice, feedback, and context, and most of all to make the sausage. Thank you!

Click a name below to see and listen to Making Mortzilla. Audio by Olivia Weitz and photographs by Arlie Sommer.