This story is part of our Impact Stories series, spotlighting our fellows who, drawing on socially engaged arts, help communities across Europe confront past experiences, address present challenges, and imagine new futures. Here, Margaux reflects on food as a way to engage with social, environmental, and political issues affecting the world today.
When I started foodculture days in 2017, I was frustrated by the inaction of our leaders and realised that we, the people, needed to organise on a collective, grassroots level. I was living in Germany at the time, and the creatives of Berlin – including those from the diasporic community – were experimenting with food and artistic practices. That’s where I came to understand food as a medium that could encompass many of the themes I was interested in: ecology, gender, imagination, belonging, and more.
foodculture days shares knowledge and practices around food, inviting people to rediscover the impact of our choices on the environment, as well as better understand crises shaped by late capitalism and the patriarchy. We do this through exhibitions, performances, workshops, convivial cooking sessions, and meals open to all, with these moments of exchange culminating in a Biennale. We also conduct field research, and in 2023 launched our first editorial project, Boca a Boca, to showcase our research processes.
Our role is to listen to the desires and needs of local communities and organise encounters between people that wouldn’t otherwise meet.
We work with artists, scientists, farmers, cooks, winemakers, activists, academics, ecologists, and gardeners – anyone who engages with food as a material, a medium, a research subject, a way to connect, or a tool of resistance. By proposing an alternative way of relating to plants, soil, seeds, and each other, we hope to move towards models that nurture, heal, and sustain the living world.
One of our programmes, Under the Same Sun, was a culinary experience that invited Latin American diasporic communities in Switzerland to reflect on corn as a “biocultural archive”. Participants engaged in hands-on foodmaking – like shaping arepas and wrapping hallacas – while exchanging recipes and stories passed down generations. By bringing together local and diasporic communities, the project questioned how knowledge is inherited and transmitted, as well as the hybrid nature of identity in a globalised world.
The programme also brought together artists and non‑artists to create a shared space where food-based cultural practices became a bridge between diverse groups. Working in collaboration with KOMÅ Culture Studio, an interdisciplinary culinary space in Switzerland, we connected them with a local corn producer, enabling a shift away from industrial imported corn and fostering more sustainable, locally rooted food practices.
Projects like these – built on the concept of “radical hospitality” – have facilitated the exchange of knowledge and helped develop strong bonds of solidarity within and between communities. I hope politicians and the public will recognise the essential role of socially engaged arts in engaging with urgent issues, in connecting with realities on the ground, and in boldly addressing the root causes of late capitalism, patriarchy, and colonialism. That way, we hope to create a more liveable, ethical, and solidarity-based society.
Explore more stories of socially engaged arts driving change across Europe. View the Stories of Impact map here.
