Initiated by Cooking Sections in 2015, CLIMAVORE explores how what we eat as humans alter climates and reimagines the role of cultural institutions as agents of change in times of climate crisis. It works to envision regenerative diets and food infrastructures for new human-made seasons. By forging links between art, cultural and agricultural spaces; between restaurants and producers, and between civic leaders and educators, CLIMAVORE develops research, pedagogical programmes, curatorial frameworks and cooking apprenticeships to implement change.
With their Becoming CLIMAVORE campaign they have been rethinking menus across restaurants, cafes and canteens in cultural and educational institutions. Engaging now more than 20 institutions worldwide, including Tate, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Serpentine, Istanbul Biennial, V&A and KØS, Becoming CLIMAVORE has evolved into a movement to address the seasons of the climate crisis, from drought to polluted seas and soil infertility.
In Oct. 2023, Hartwig Art Foundation is taking part in the CLIMAVORE Assembly. The assembly brings together a network of museums advocating for change into a conversation with policy makers, growers, cultivators, grassroot activists, seed keepers, chefs and environmentalists, committed to addressing the climate crisis through food, agroecology and aqua-ecology. A series of debates, inspirational lectures, ground-breaking case studies and performative meals will address how museums and education platforms can instigate new policies, drive civic movement and take actions towards regenerative food systems and climate justice, bringing the many cultures around food together.
Established in London in 2013 by Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe, Cooking Sections uses food as a lens and a tool to observe landscapes in transformation. They examine the systems that organise the world through food and use site-responsive installation, performance and video to explore the overlapping boundaries between art, architecture, ecology and geopolitics.
Their work has been exhibited at Tate Britain, Serpentine Galleries, SALT, Bonniers Konsthall, Lafayette Anticipations, the Taipei Biennial, 58th Venice Biennale, Istanbul Biennial among others. Cooking Sections were nominated for the Turner Prize in 2021. They were awarded the Special Prize at the 2019 Future Generation Art Prize and were nominated for the Visible Award for socially engaged practices. Daniel Fernández Pascual is also the recipient of the 2020 Harvard GSD Wheelwright Prize for Being Shellfish.