Municipal Kitchens
June 29 – August 18, 2024
Opening: June 28, 7 pm
Press preview: June 28, 11 am
Please register at presse@ngbk.de

Municipal Kitchens reimagines communal eating in cities. The exhibition gathers works by international and local artists and collectives that expose the current state and injustice of food systems, as well as ones that propose new forms of community-based eating. The artworks are accompanied by a weekly event program and free-of-charge communal meals, transforming the nGbK space – previously a fast food restaurant in a former market hall – into a public kitchen.

Municipal Kitchens will bring together a multitude of artistic practices and positions around a central sculptural installation, the ‘kitchen table’, to develop visions for another form of food culture. The surrounding exhibition will feature works that interrogate the current state and injustice of food systems, as well as ones that develop visions for new forms of community-based eating. A project by Gatari Surya Kusuma, Åsa Sonjasdotter, and Daniela Zambrano Amidón breaks down the role of potatoes in international traditions. A Berlin-specific installation and cooking performances by the Cocina CoLaboratorio collective embodies the pluriverse of the “Milpa”, a Mexican crop-growing system. A film work by Franziska Pierwoss dissects the relevance of local supermarkets in times of inflation and the decay of the state. A wall-size installation has been produced by Myvillages, who extend the lumbung network they developed during documenta fifteen to Berlin to make and share drinks in support of local communities. A new tapestry work by Elia Nurvista unpicks the global networks and history of colonial palm oil trade. A video work by Mimi Ọnụọha challenges the narrative of progress by highlighting the discrepancy between production and distribution of food. Johann Arens’ collages from reclaimed display materials draw tender and abstract portraits of the London food venues they have been gathered from. An undercover audio tour of local supermarkets (the Kaufland branch downstairs from nGbK) by Alicja Rogalska introduces a disruption into daily shopping habits. Finally, a specially commissioned historical narrative of the nGbK site on the old Berlin Central Market Hall by writer Annett Gröschner and a collection of further texts allow visitors to explore the research context of the exhibition.

The exhibition space features a working kitchen run by food artist and curator Cherry Truluck and a central table installation created by Another Provision that hosts communal meals and events connecting international struggles and local action. These workshops, talks, performances and actions will be realized collaboratively by the participating artists and Berlin-based food justice organizations – among others Gutsgarten Hellersdorf, Satellit, Torhaus Koch Kollektiv, and Über den Tellerrand, who are working in different locations throughout the city. These co-facilitated events and meals will be free of charge and open to all, creating cumulative engagement with questions such as: How can we make kitchens part of public urban space and de-privatize the labor of cooking? How can food become a common good that connects residents from different communities? What if affordable, around-the-clock meals were available across our cities in spaces that include child care provisions? What if these spaces were community-led? How can food, a deeply personal and often divisive issue, be a source of community connection and collective action? In the process, new trans-disciplinary and international dialogues and solidarities will be sparked.

Artists: Alicja Rogalska, Another Provision, Cherry Truluck, Cocina CoLaboratorio, Elia Nurvista, Franziska Pierwoss, Gatari Surya Kusuma / Åsa Sonjasdotter / Daniela Zambrano Amidón, Johann Arens, Mimi Ọnụọha, Myvillages, Pierogi Princesses

nGbK work group: Alicja Rogalska, Cherry Truluck, Hanna Baumann, Johann Arens, Miriam Lowack

PROGRAM

Friday, June 28, 16:00  
Municipal Kitchens Launch
Collaborative feast with social gastronomy organization Über den Tellerrand. 
16:00 communal „chop and chat“ and cooking workshop (Please register at anmeldung@ngbk.de).
19:00 Speeches and reading by Annett Gröschner
19:30 Community Feast and gathering

Friday, July 5, 17:00
The Choice Is Yours
Discussion at the dinner table led by artist Franziska Pierwoss exploring the democratic potential of a supermarket revolution. A feast of organic produce.

Friday, July 12, 18:00    
Milpa Pluriverse
Cocina CoLaboratorio host a public gathering in collaboration with Satellit, borne out of a week-long slow-cooking process built on collective small actions of care, inspired by the plural languages of the “Milpa”.

Saturday, July 20, 15:00
Cooking Palm
Indonesia is the primary producer of Red Palm Oil yet it barely features in Indonesian gastronomy or food culture and is instead mainly exported to West Africa. In this cooking workshop with artist Elia Nurvista, Indonesian food knowledge will be applied to ‘appropriate’ the ingredient and create a brand new dish.

Thursday July 25, 17:00            
Pierogi Dreams 
Almost every food culture features some sort of dumpling. Tonight, the Pierogi Princesses pay tribute to one of the greatest – the dynamic, the humble, The Pierogi. 
17:00 Flavor ballot
17:30 Communal pierogi preparation 
18:30 Pierogi party

Saturday, July 27, 12:00
Rural Undercurrents Day Trip
Join Myvillages for a day trip to community project Gutsgarten in Hellersdorf and station urbaner kulturen/nGbK Hellersdorf, including identification and foraging of herbs and an introduction to Company Drinks.
11:00 First meeting point nGbK am Alex, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 11/13, 10178 Berlin
12:00 Second meeting point Gutsgarten Hellersdorf, Alt-Hellersdorf 17, 12629 Berlin 
14:00 PotLuck Picnic
15:00 Visit to nGbK Hellersdorf

Sunday, July 28, 13:00
Rural Undercurrents Communal Meal
Communal meal highlighting ingredients from Hellersdorf, hosted by Myvillages at nGbK am Alex. 

Saturday, August 10, 13:00
Papitas Tarpuycha – Earthing Potatoes
A workshop which weaves together stories of places told through recipes. Led by Gatari Surya Kusuma, Åsa Sonjasdotter and Daniela Zambrano Amidón, participants will make food together and reflect on embodied knowledge of food and cooking as ways of socializing and sharing knowledge. 

Sunday, 18th August, 14:30 (Finissage)
Küfa (Küche für alle/Kitchen for all)
The Municipal Kitchens closing event features collective cooking, chopping and feasting with Torhaus Koch Kollektiv. Bring ingredients – leftovers from your fridge or produce from your garden, your friends or just your curiosity. The event will bring together artists and food activists from Berlin and beyond to discuss the possibilities of a kitchen for everyone.
14:30 Ingredients drop off
15:00 “Taste the Waste” panel discussion with dumpster cake 
17:00 Community feast
 

All events are free to attend and will include food shared around the communal kitchen table.

All events take place at nGbK am Alex, unless otherwise indicated.

Further information on all events will be available here shortly.