To Eat/Feed the Other: Art, Food & Politics

About

In a world governed by capital, colonial hegemony, and consumption, food has become a contested political terrain. The exploitation of natural resources, farmers, and laborers – masked as progress – reveals how hegemonic powers control production, distribution, and destruction according to economic interests. While hunger exhausts much of the world’s population, excess wears down the rest. When food loses its essence as nourishment, cultural identity, and collective heritage, art emerges as a critical tool to illuminate these complexities and challenge hegemonic control through creative activism and multimedia exploration.
This workshop investigates the socio-economic-environmental politics of food—from origins and production todistribution, consumption, and taste cultures embedded in our personal and collective identities. We examine how art can engage with food as both material and concept, incorporating aesthetics into edible substances and techniques. Food art creates a unique sensory relationship, inviting viewers to taste, smell, and touch beyond traditional visual and auditory experiences. We will research and experiment with this expanded aesthetic vocabulary, defining how these rarely engaged senses operate within contemporary art practice. Through viewing, listening, and tasting, we will examine food-based works across art history – from fine art and performance to sound works –combining theoretical readings, critical discourse,research, and hands-on production of new work.
This workshop addresses urgent questions for artists and global citizens: how do we confront systems of exploitationthrough creative practice? How can art restore food’s role as shared nourishment and cultural identity? In an era of ecological crisis and inequality, engaging with food politically through art is not optional: it is essential.

Course leader

Thalia Hoffman / Manar Zuabi

Target group

Requirements:
Willingness to listen, reflect, learn and unlearn, and aspire to go beyond time and place.
What to bring:
Yourself and what you need to make art.

Fee info