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Artistic interventions represent an attempt to look beyond existing systems and engage with new perspectives. The ecological alternatives are a new holistic thinking that connects cosmology and nature in a spiritual way and affirms the need for respect diversity in both human and non-​human forms. To deepen the notion of biodiversity, the home – our soil and soul of our non-​human kinfolks will form a refuge and center for body, art and unity. With „Same things make us laugh, make us cry“, the Body Archive Project established their own language to explore and present new ways of thinking.

The Art-Science collaboration with Marie Van Berchem, Braida Thom and Kenza Benabderrazik, started in November 2021 during the first exhibition titled “Helvetia and the Journey of a Cocoa Bean.” Since then, this collaboration has led to a new project aimed at building more connections between HELVETIA, chocolate consumers in Switzerland and the research conducted by the SAE group on the Monitoring and Evaluation of Post-Harvest Cocoa Processing and Farmers’ Support Centers in Soubré, Côte d’Ivoire.

The narrative of “swiss” chocolate needs to be questioned, by shedding light on cocoa production and its effects on the farmers. This art-science project highlights the role of cocoa smallholder farmers in the largest cocoa country (Côte d’Ivoire). By creating a bridge between Ivorian cocoa producers and Swiss chocolate consumers, the project fosters a critical reflection on the consumption of this non-essential product and renders visible the underlying socio-economic impact of the sector.

The exhibition format brings chocolate back to its retail context by taking place in corner shops around switzerland. The elements of the project merge with the shop’s usual decor and objects : postcards, chocolate bars, and a piece of fabric to be hung in the window or behind the counter. Through informal gathering and walk-in in shops located in different cities around the country, the project reaches a broad audience of chocolate consumers from varied socio-economic backgrounds. This format allows to get closer to consumers, non or poorly informed about the cocoa value chain dynamics.

This new work involves collaborations with Vincent Osei Thurkson, Wax-up Africa and Taucherli. The opening took place on 27 September in the Kiosk Goldy Lify (Altstetten, Zürich). Part of the exhibition will be displayed in 2024 at the Kultur Museum of St. Gallen, in Scuol and in Geneva.

ALIMENTO is an exhibition that investigates the act of nourishing. It brings forward the topic of anthropophagy in order to explore food systems that are based on reciprocity/circularity with the earth, other humans and non-human entities, as well as to challenge extractivist, patriarchal, capitalist and colonial models.
With the participation of artists Paloma Ayala, Kadija de Paula, Lívia Melzi, La Polinizadora, Mu, Pedro Zylbersztajn and scientists Dr. Tania Galindo Castañeda, Dr. Sandra Smith Aguilar and Dr. Benjamin Wilde.

ALIMENTO is the first of a series of 3 exhibitions entitled “Earth is the heaviest element” which addresses the need to de-construct and re-construct our relationship to the earth, other humans and non human entities. It brings together the knowledge and practices of Latin American and Swiss artists and scientists together, in order to suggest alternative ways of co-existing.
The exhibition will be between the Art space La_cápsula and the Greenhouse.
Curated by Adriana Domínguez.
In collaboration with arvae.

Symposium & finissage 

On 13 June, we organised a symposium on loops, reciprocity, fungi and food, as an exchange between art and science.

There were contributions from Paloma Ayala, La Polinizadora, Mu, Dr. Tania Galindo Castañeda, Dr. Sandra Smith Aguilar and Dr. Benjamin Wilde, which covered topics such as circularity in food systems, when art becomes life, labs of intention and transformation, architecture and anatomy of maize cultivars, growing fungi with human waste, speculative imaginaries, daily resistance practices, hegemony of linearity and the value of shit, intersectional dialogues, urine enriched biochar; and going past poop-phobia.

The finnissage was another beautiful moment of the coming together of our community; and digesting the collaboration and project. Paloma Ayala and Pedro Zylbersztajn proposed dinner and a lecture performance.

We are now planning to continue working on ALIMENTO in 2024, in this constellation of arvae x la_capsula x SAE greenhouse. We experienced a strong collaboration together as a transdisciplinary team (curator, producer and scientist) across many levels – research, content, hosting events, communications.

Being in Morocco 

In May 2024 , we attended the International Society of Ethnobiology Congress in Marrakesh with Tara Lasrado to present “ALIMENTO: Exploring food systems based on reciprocity and circularity.” Collaborating with Tara Lasrado, Adriana Domínguez Velasco, and Paloma Ayala, we explored how ALIMENTO challenges extractivist, patriarchal, capitalist, and colonial models through decolonial practices.

We also hosted a Reading Session for the Harvest Festival at Le18Marrakech, featuring readings from Dr. Simon Gwara’s article on human excreta in agriculture, an essay on mycology as a queer discipline by Patricia Kaishian and Hasmik Djoulakian, and an excerpt from Nada Elia’s book “Greater than the Sum of Our Parts: Feminism, Inter/Nationalism, and Palestine.”

The Greenhouse is hosting 18 artists’ reflections on the future of our plants.
How do we preserve and communicate their biodiversity, what is the role of wild plants, how can agroecology work to sustain cultivated plants? How can the soil be revitalized? What public discussions can we have about these relationships between nutrition, food, and social issues?

These artworks, films and installations, attempt to raise awareness about the future of plants, soil, nutrition, food, and water, and they reflect contact with some of the research of Sustainable Agroecosystems group.

FUTURE PLAN(T)S will be accompanied by two public LASERZURICH panels, featuring talks and discussion with artists and scientists from our Group. These discourses will be held on «The Future of Soil – Plant interactions» (Register here) and «Resilience, Nutrition, Food Systems» (Register here).

Curated by Jill Scott, Dorothea Rust, Ursula Palla Sandro, Sandro Steudler and Barbara Bientenholz and co-organized with Life Science Zurich.

Almost a year ago, the students of the « Tropical Cropping systems, soils and livelihoods » course spent few weeks in Kenya.  Together with Eldoret University and KU Leuven, the students of ETH Zürich studied the Agroecological performance and climate resilience of some cropping systems in the Trans-Nzoia County.

Yilin Huang, a master student of the Institut of Science, Technology and Policy, captured her experience in pictures that she will present from September 18th to October 1st 2023 on the Green Floor of the CHN building. The exhibition will then be hosted in the Greenhouse over the month of October and November.