The Edible City

February 26, 2007

For the past few months, together with colleagues Hans Ibelings and Anneke Moors, I have been curating an exhibtion for the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Maastricht titled the Edible City. The exhibition is about the urban environment and its food systems. There was a time when city-dwellers could more or less provide for their own alimentary requirements. The entire production, distribution, consumption and recycling of food took place primarily in the city and its immediate surroundings. But since the Industrial Revolution, the chain of food ‘from field to fork’ has greatly increased in length.

The Edible City presents a diverse range of proposals and strategies to produce food in or near the city and that offer the opportunity to experience the city in a different way. As befits the subject, much of the exhibition is itself edible.

• The Edible City / de Eetbare Stad
  March 3 – 22 June, 2007
  Netherlands Architecture Institute – Maastricht
  Wiebengahal
  Avenue Ceramique 226
• Adjacent to Bonnefanten Museum, entrance on Daemslunet side.
  T: +31(0)43-3503020
  info@naimaastricht.nl

• – AVL Ville – Atelier van Lieshout
• – Farmers’ Markets: Nina Planck, London Farmers Markets, Carolina Verhoeven (also, thanks to Brouwer Betist en Sawadee)
• – London’s Borough Market – Greig + Stephenson Architects
• 
  – City Farming Plant Modules – N55
• 
  – City Food – M. Dijkman, A. de Jong, D. Herzog
• – de Vuurkeizer – Nio Architecten
• – Doorgeschoten (Bolted) – Maarten Kolk
• – DOTT07 Urban Farming – David Barrie, Nina Belk, Debra Solomon
• – Drinking water fountain – Jan Konings
• – Drumflowers – We can make tomorrow better – Tom Philips
• – EcoSphere – Happy Shrimp Farm
• – Edible Estates and Fritz Haeg Studio
• – EVA-Lanxmeer – Foundation EVA (Marleen Kaptein) and House of Concepts (Jorn Mols)
• – Exploded London, Egg diagram, LeisurESCAPE and images of Cuban organoponicos – Bohn & Viljoen Architects
• – Fallen Fruit – David Burns, Matias Viegener, Austin Young
• – Farmtycoon – FABRICations (Eric Frijters), WUR-Alterra, InnovatieNetwerk
• – Freegans – Adam Weissman, spokesperson
• – Garden Village Collections – Herman de Vries, SKOR (Foundation for Art in the Public Domain)
• – Grow yer own dang food Sprout Restaurant – Debra Solomon / culiblog.org and van der Plas Sprouts
• – Infra Ecology – Duzan Doepel, Jago van Bergen, Willemijn Lofvers
• – Free Range Kitchen Refridgerator, Chicken Coop, wood burning oven, climate machine – Ton Matton
• – Maastricht, Tolbert, Rotterdam – o.m. Foundation Oudheidkamer Fredewalda Tolbert (Bralt Hovinga)
• – Middlehaven Docks – SMC Alsop Architects
• – Parc Unimétal Caen – Agence Dominique Perrault
• – Pig City, Markthal Rotterdam – MVRDV
• – South Central Farmers – Axis of Justice
• – The Kitchen of Terrestrial Mechanics – John Arndt
• – Tour vivante – Atelier SOA Architectes
• – Urban Agriculture – all over the world – ECF-RUAF
• – Food chain city / Voedselketenstad – 2012 Architecten, Het Portaal, Innovation Netwerk
• – Wasteware – Matthijs Vogels
• – Wujin WAZ Holland Park – WUR/Alterra (Peter Smeets, Rik Olde Loohuis)
• – Sand bag garden / Zandzakkentuin – Studio Jurgen Bey
• – Seven street pieces for Almere / Zeven Straatstukken voor Almere – De Pavi

The exhibition is based on an idea by Guus Beumer and is curated by Debra Solomon (culiblog.org), Anneke Moors and Hans Ibelings. The exhibition design is by Event Architecture, in collaboration with Hans Engelbrecht and Margriet Visser (de Groene Stap).

• NAi-Maastricht

debra at 2:26 | Comments (3) | post to del.icio.us

Visiting a langar

February 20, 2007

The entire meal, the ingredients, the preparation and the cleanup, all of it is donated by the community. Everyone eats together as equals, sitting side by side at the langar.

In one week’s time the Doors of Perception: JUICE round table workshops will begin in Delhi. Despite all of the tragic news that we heard today, I’m still looking forward to going. I thought I’d post some photos of the langar that I attended at the Gurdwara Bangla Sahib, the last time I was there in 2005. A langar is a Sikh ‘free kitchen’ and eating there (and working there to help prepare the communally produced food) is one of the Three Pillars of Sikhism. The practice was introduced by the first Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak to ensure feelings of equality amongst all Sikhs, who regularly sit down and eat food together in these ritual meals.

Cookin’ up one heq of a lot of lentil soup at the langar

The food is vegetarian so that everyone will feel comfortable joining in and eating. Community members donate one-tenth of their wealth to the Gurdwara’s food stores. Any auspicious occasion is reason enough for a family to volunteer and work preparing food for the langar.

Community members help roll out the chapati on a long fabric and flour covered surface

A very dynamic chapati frying moment. The community members herd their chapatis over the enormous frying area. No oil is used.

The best part (I think) is the dishwashing zone. In what looks like the world’s longest one lane swimming pool, but then made of marble, community members toss the dirty stainless steel plates from vat to vat, clattering the dishes and making the most enormous din possible. After the dishes have made it from one side to the other being nudged along and thrown and splashed, and all of the dishwashers are soaking wet from what seems like a really fun waterfight, the dishes are deemed to be clean and are tossed into the ‘clean cage’ where they are left to dry before being passed around for the next sitting. Exquisite visually and accoustically!

• Doors of Perception: JUICE
• the Langar according to Wikipedia
• Guru Nanak according to Wikipedia
• All about Sikhs…

debra at 2:30 | Comments (2) | post to del.icio.us

Dark side of the moon soup

February 14, 2007

1000 year old egg, in a puddle of kefir and onions

I’m in love, in-loved and love my beloved as much as the next gal, but I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about Valentine’s Day. (Schatje doesn’t read my blog, thank gawd!)

February is the month where the novelty and exoticism of winter’s dreary darkness has completely worn off for me. Born in the Mojave Desert and based in the Polar Circle, it is sometimes possible to be lured by others into thinking that the utter lack of warmth and light is in some way charming. Come February I’ve pretty much had it and have started cursing the fact that I didn’t follow each new year’s resolution to get the hell out of Dodge for the winter months. A nippy winter night in Occitania you can wax romantic about, but up here, the incessant greyness sans etoiles of cloud cover like a woolen blanket wrapped around your head and temperatures hovering around 8-12°C, it’s so neither here nor there.

On the bright side, the 1000 year eggs are back. They were banned for a few months to further whip up fear about the bird flu. But these jeweled beauties will be part of my Valentine Dinner which I will simply refer to as ‘dinner’ and which I will colour coordinate with the night sky…

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