Food Waste Transformers
This project brought together researchers and students from Leiden University, along with students from The Hague University of Applied Sciences. Their goal was to highlight how initiatives like Conscious Kitchen, Vers & Vrij, and Green Kitchen are turning food waste into healthy meals for underserved populations in The Hague and Leiden. Instead of personal testimonials, the focus was on the tools of the trade, including a fridge, cargo bike, coffee cart, and cocktail table, to tell the story of transformation.
Visitors at the exhibition enjoyed listening to these object audio tales while sampling a variety of upcycled food. One standout example was beer crafted from 800,000 bread loaves that would have otherwise been discarded daily across the Netherlands.
These "food transformers" shed light on how food waste from markets turns into meals benefiting part of the food cycle. These food transforming infrastructures reinforce some of the urban expressions of solidarity supporting these cities.
“The exhibit concentrates on the journeys these objects undertake. These journeys open new meanings of solidarity, revealing how solidarity is always in flux, and how it can also be conflictive, a struggle, and full of contradictions. Looking at objects that serve as connectors and/or transformers of food waste, what becomes apparent, and this exhibition reveals, are the many faces of solidarity.” Dr. D.A. Vicherat Mattar
Conditional Multi-layered forms of convergence and distance conditioned by place and time.
Solidarity without reciprocity Convenient forms of collaboration where no reciprocity is expected.
Instrumental Relations affected by competition and (dis)trust, especially in moments of crisis.
Necessarily Transactional When livelihoods are at stake, reciprocity and exchange become strategies of survival
Solidarity of things Invisible support structures in place to enable engagement as connection & transformation
Contradictory Solidarity with own groups within shared context, but not necessarily extended to others and/or in different contexts.
Research lead- Daniela Vicherat Mattar,
Art Direction- Gabriela Bustamante
Graphic Design - Dee Laarboonsaarp
Website- Dee Laarboonsaarp and Elke Traub
Artifact production- Paul Vernier & Claudia Suarez
More details: the GTGC Conference 2022 - Leiden University (universiteitleiden.nl)
Exhibition: Food Waste Transformers - Leiden University (universiteitleiden.nl)