Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien
1st September to 28th October 2012
Opening: Friday, 31st August 2012, from 7 pm
Hungry City. Agriculture in contemporary art
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On the stone planet Earth, a layer has been added since the beginning of life, 3.9 billion years ago: our between 5 and 20 cm thick layer of top-soil. In this thin layer, the major part of all biological activity of Earth is going on. Through our various actions we are either nourishing or depleting this layer. The interaction of microorganisms in the top-soil and life above means without exaggeration everything for life’s further progression.
The lack of organic matter brought back to the soil in modern large scale farming is rapidly destroying invaluable top-soil worldwide, putting the whole foodproduction of the future at risk. Recent years guerilla gardening is a fantastic movement, addressing many of the problems connected to industrial agriculture and urban – rural disconnection. For the show Hungry city, Kultivator will make an action of “guerilla composting”, that adds to this practice, and encourages people to feed – back nutrition to the ground they live on.
Prior to the opening, we will dig down a few wormtowers on green spots nearby the exhibition space/area. Inside the exhibition, we will set up a “worm campaign office”, where information on the wormtowers, (how they work, how to make them, why its good, etc) will be displayed, as well as tools, materials and of course worms. During the opening weekend , we will ask visitors to join us and make their own tower to take out and install somewhere where they think it is good to feed back some nutrition to the soil. The worm office will also have a presentation of Kultivators previous works by the poster series “Post revolutionary exercises; ten suggestions of how to prepare for a new order”, reflecting previous projects, from now back to 2006. The Guerilla composting will be the 11:th of these exercises, and a new poster will be made for it. After we leave, for the rest of the exhibition period, the worm office will still be interactive, for those who wishes to make their own wormtower and guerrilla composting action.
A worm tower (vermicompost) is a perma culture method of composting, that simply uses free-ranging compost worms to break down organic waste and then move those nutrients out into the surrounding. A pipe, for example a drain pipe, is dug into the ground, sticking up 10 – 20 cm. Dry organic matter, like leaves or grass, and worms are inserted, and on this you can throw kitchen waste, like leftover food, potato peel, etc. The worms eat the waste and crawl out of the pipe again to spread the processed matter further. The method is often used to direct nutrition to one certain tree. A lid prevent birds or rats from picking the waste out from the top.
[AFG_gallery id=’49’]
1st September to 28th October 2012
Opening: Friday, 31st August 2012, from 7 pm
Hungry City. Agriculture in contemporary art
Funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds
Curators: Anne Kersten (exhibition), Stéphane Bauer (accompanying program)
There are currently few other topics that make such a pertinent link between art and society as food and nutrition. Contemporary urban gardens are being presented as parts of exhibitions and symposia on philosophy, artists are turning to gardening or farming and chefs are becoming artists – it also seems like few other topics manage to unite so many seemingly contradictory manners and tendencies. Parallel to this, discussions are taking place concerning traditional concepts and methods, small rural business and the cultivation of old varieties of fruit as well as utopian projects, such as inner-city farms. Slow Food, an association of people committed to high-quality, traditionally produced food, has seen a steady increase in its followers over the years, while residents of US cities located in so-called 'food deserts' seem to only yearn after discount stores. Diverse social developments such as these have long been reflected in artistic practices.
The international group show Hungry City follows different directions of the debate and assembles a selection of artistic works that address many different aspects of food production and supply. Contemporary pieces are juxtaposed with works by renowned artists of the 1970s and 80s demonstrating that the issue was already a virulent one within art circles during the past decades. Currently, new art forms such as rural art and urban agricultural projects attempt to clarify the volatile issue and point out changes in stereotypical attributions found in urban and rural areas. Following cultural theoretical exhibitions dealing with food and large-scale projects looking at sustainability, the exhibition Hungry City offers a first-time survey in Germany of agricultural aspects in art from 1960 until today.
The exhibition also focuses on the relationship between town and country and examines these interactions with movements between the two poles playing a role in many respects. This mostly concerns the exchange between food producers and consumers, as well as the changes in food's consistency or physical state during preparation. However, the paths made to transport food are also illustrated: From continent to continent, countryside to city or from the kitchen to the hungry.
Within this context, Carolyn Steel, architect and author of the book "Hungry City – How Food Shapes Our Lives" calls for a parallel perception of urban and rural areas: "Feeding Cities has become rather more complicated than it was in the fourteenth century. But one thing is certain: however much we look the other way, our rural hinterland will always mirror the way we live. Ancient cities were run on slave labor, so were the farms that fed them. Medieval cities thrived on trade, so did their hinterlands. Modern cities, like industrialized hinterlands, have little respect for nature. If we do not like what's happening out there in the landscape, we had better rethink how we eat, because one will never change without the other"
Accompanying program of events: The accompanying program for the exhibition Hungry City in Kunstraum Kreuzberg pursues to emphasize the connection between urban and rural areas, visiting places of food production both here and there. Starting at an urban cultural centre, a series of diverse events hopes to provide a view upon and route towards near and distant surroundings.
Artists (preliminary selection): Sonja Ahlhäuser (D), Maria Thereza Alves (BRA / I), Yekaterina Anzupowa (D), KP Brehmer (D), Agnes Denes (USA), Letitia El Halli Obeid (ARG), Fall Fruit (USA), Amy Franceschini (USA ), Fernando Garcia Dory (E), Sun Green Fort (DK), cultivator (SE), Kristina Leko (CROA), Ulrike Ludwig (D), Matthew Moore (USA), MyVillage (NL, D, UK), Henry Riebesehl ( D), D Antje Schiffer & Thomas Sprenger (), Bonnie Sherk (USA), Lukasz Skapski (PL), Asa Sonja yolk (SE / D), Daniel Spoerri (D), Superflex (DK), Insa Winkler (D), Christa Zeißig (D)
