Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien
1st September to 28th October 2012
Opening: Friday, 31st August 2012, from 7 pm
Hungry City. Agriculture in contemporary art
more info
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.
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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)
Kultivator at a residence atANA,
Astrid Noacks atelier: http://astrid-noack.dk/english.
In this time we will present and perform time banking, a form of alternative economy.We hereby invite all who would like to work/exchange time to improve the backyardand front facade of the house from 15th – 17th of june.The work will end with the Backyard feeding party the 17th of june at 19.00.
the Timebank
“From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.”
Louis Blanc
The collaboration-form the Timebank started with a couple of families on Öland, Sweden, in 2010, and is now involving about 10 households, with activities about 10 times a year.
Briefly, the Timebank is a simple structure for exchange of time and work between the participants. The exchange enables large labor-intensive effort for maintenance or new construction to homes, farms, festivals, weddings, etc., with minimal financial effort. Once a participant has a need to get a job done, it is advertised on the group’s Facebook page, date and time are determined, and anyone who can shows up and contribute what they can, until the work is done. Food, drinks, sleeping-place and nice atmosphere is on the one who invites. The Timebank does not count hours or credits, but is based entirely on the participants’ idea of what they can and want to contribute, and what they should get back, according to the famous principles of French socialist Louis Blanc.
Kultivator is one of the founders of the Timebank, others are artists, small farmers, musicians, teachers, carpenters, etc, with all in common that they try to restore or maintain cheap but old and often derelict buildings in combination with small companies or enterprises.
The Timebank was not set up as an artproject, but evolved out of a practical need and has become an important part of social life on the island, often replacing the more traditional “sitting down and talking” party.
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Future Policy “Gnestopia”
A policy is a governing document with the overall intentions for the area the policy covers. The review provides guidelines to facilitate development.
Kultivator has in spring 2012 worked in a creative school project with children in grades 4 and 5 of Gnesta municipality. The aim of the work has been to create tools for communicating and visualizing desired future scenarios. The focus has been on spatial capabilities, form and system for highrise building and living many together. Work began with sketching and brainstorming in the schools,
and continued inside Artlab Gnesta´s exhibitionspace, with the construction of a three- dimensional policy document that is read by playing. The relationship art – reality and the role of vision, in both cases, is explored in a social sculpture, designed and constructed by a total of nearly 100 people.
Visions and ideas: grades 4 and 5 in Kvarnbacka, Laxne, and Welandersborg schools, approximately 50 kids age 10 -11
Interpretation and construction: Mathieu Vrijman, Jonas Rahm, Alexandre Chapus, Adam Nyandikila, Rasmus Jeppsson, Malena Rahm, Marlene Lindmark, Mia Lindaregård and Malin Lindmark Vrijman. Building kids: kids Ivar and Moa Vrijman, Morgan Stigeborn, Theo and Nora Rahm and Alva, Joel and Signe Jeppsson.
Gnestopia is part of Artlab Gnestas “Green year” and opens June 2 at 12:00 to 17:00., together with the videowork “Grassworks”, by Emma Göransson. On the opening day is also held a release party of the new journal “Fält” and launching of Patrick Dallarts floating islands. For more info, see www.artlabgnesta.se
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Top-soil tombola on the stone planet.
Life makes soil.
↓
↑
and the soil makes life.
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 topsoil. In this thin layer, the major part of all biological activity of Earth is going on. Through our various actions at the place we live or work, we are either nourishing or depleting this layer. The interaction of microorganisms in the topsoil and life above means without exaggeration everything for life’s further progression.
It is as big – and as small – as anything …
For Botkyrka Konsthall, Kultivator makes The Top-soil tombola, a compost bin for the gallery’s visitors and staff. Inside the institution it becomes its own cultural producer, who works during the show to prepare the foundation for any further activity: top soil, the planet’s tenuous utmost cultural layer.
Visitors and staff in the gallery are asked to put their organic waste in the tombola, and then turn it to mix and aerate the process. Then the cultures of bacteria and microorganisms work on for themselves. In September, in time for the Fittja Open, about 50 liters highly cultured local soil, have been formed to continue growing.
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Top-Soil project of Kultivator in Botkyrka is also, and perhaps more importantly, taking place outside the art gallery with an installation of a “worm tower” (vermicompost) in connection with allotment gardens, and a call for creating your own compost and composting on the balcony, in the allotment garden, or in public green spaces.
In the summer of 2012, Kultivator will work further on the concept in Botkyrka, and at Fittja Open in September, the final results of this fieldwork will be presented.
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see here the manual/fanzine made by Jonas Rahm
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28/4 – 20/5 Cirkulationscentralen, Malmö
“Gran´s University, ornaments of knowledge”
The inspiration for Grans´ University, comes from the initiative of Mrs Vendana Shiva, India, that started up her Grandmothers university in Navdanya, North India, in 2003. “..is aimed at both celebrating and validating the wisdom of our grandmothers, as well as transmitting this to future generations…”
What drew our attention, was that she did this as a reaction on the 9.11 attacks in 2001. The idea of turning to the grandmothers when times get hard inspired us, since they are not usually considered the ones that have the answers when it comes to great challenges of the future.
We are now, far more than terrorism, facing enormous challenges considering the management of resources. At this moment in time, we have the possibility to turn to the last generation in our part of the world that was still around before consumption-society really kicked in.
The show consists of the ornamental notes from Kultivators study trip to Solberg,
North Jämtland, spring 2012.
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