Discussion at the dinner table led by artist Franziska Pierwoss exploring the democratic potential of a supermarket

German
Whisper translation in English

Lidl in Germany generated sales of 24.5 billion euros in the 2021 financial year and is the world’s largest discount group worldwide. Since Autumn 2018, Lidl has been offering organic products under the Bioland brand. The introduction was met with massive criticism and mistrust from consumers, other organic associations, and also from members of the Bioland association itself who feared that the Bioland brand itself would be sold off.

At five percent, the share of organic products in the German food market is negligible and only ten percent of agricultural land in Germany is farmed organically. The German government’s goal is to double this proportion by 2030. How do farmers view these plans? Who buys the organic range at Lidl? How class-specific is the consumption of organic food? Are the contents of the shopping basket an expression of political convictions?

While customers experience inflation and rising food prices in the supermarket the recent farmers’ protests in Berlin dramatically highlighted how disconnected the urban population has become from issues affecting agricultural workers in the rest of Germany - on a practical level as well as in terms of politics.

The Choice is Yours invites audience and experts to a discussion over dinner exploring the democratic potential of a supermarket. With special guest Diego Maronese from CSA Spörgelhof.

Franziska Pierwoss works as an artist in the field of performance, video and installation. Focussing on collaborative practices, and with a strong focus on food, she develops situations in which the personal and political boundaries of participants, as well as institutions, are called into question. Since 2014 she has been staging performances with Sandra Teitge where experts engage the audience in in-depth conversations over dinner. Franziska Pierwoss has been focusing on agricultural production in Brandenburg together with her colleagues from Kollektiv Nachhaltige Kultur.

Note on accessibility from the work group Municipal Kitchens:

Cooking and eating together is a shared language all of its own, so if you don’t feel confident with the spoken language(s) available at this event, please know you are still so welcome.  We have multiple ways of sharing and we look forward to greeting you. We want everyone to be able to access our events, if there are any barriers to you joining us that we haven’t already tackled, please get in touch and we will do our best to support you. This includes providing childcare at daytime events (we will need at least one week’s notice).

Contact: anmeldung@ngbk.de