Seeds, an extended lunchtime programme addressing worlding through the lens of ecology, part of the Infinite Ecologies Marathon.
Seeds delves into the multifaceted significance of seeds as vehicles for world building. Beyond their role in food production, seeds carry history, memory and serve as potent metaphors for growth, ideas and exchange. More info here
This extended lunchtime series aims to create space to discuss the complex narratives embedded within seeds and their ecological and imaginative potential. Seeds invites participants to envision new commons and methods of knowledge exchange through the embodied experience of communal eating, sharing dishes created in close collaboration with the artists. We invite diners to engage with seeds as nourishment and a catalyst for critical dialogue.
Seeds, 2024. Presented as part of the Infinite Ecologies Marathon. The Magazine, Serpentine, September 2024. Photos:Photo by Talie Rose Eigeland. Courtesy Serpentine.
Seeds will facilitate four artist-led activations at a communal table to explore the revolutionary potential of food in reshaping our relationships to our environments and each other. The participating artists, David Blandy, Exodus Crooks, Lucia Pizzani and Jumana Manna, were invited to work with chef Moonhyung Lee, Sous Chef at the world’s first zero-waste restaurant, Silo, to develop dishes to complement their contributions. Remaining committed to Serpentine’s artist-led approach and the idea that knowledge can be produced and consumed in manifold ways, audiences will enjoy these dishes during the artist presentations, ingesting not only information but food in live activations that remove the mind/body barrier. The artists in Seeds will explore some of the many methods of world-building, and food is appreciated as a means of collectivity, taking care of each other and sharing, as well as a means of consuming knowledge to imagine new futures
Venezuelan artist Lucia Pizzani will share her research into creational myths and symbolic stories around corn in Mesoamerican cultures. Corn often appears as both a symbol and tool in Pizzani’s sculptural work and as part of her presentation for Seeds, she will present La que viste la Piel (The one who wears the skin), a video work about the Xipe Totec god of life and the ritual that marked the start of the harvest corn by the Mexicas. Audience members will also have a chance to engage with Pizzani’s sculptural practice as we use corn to impress textures in clay. Special thanks to the Archivo Lares..