CULINARY INFRASTRUCTURES. Kunsttage Plaza

This year, the Kunsttage Plaza is dedicated to the theme "Culinary Infrastructures." At the center of the program are presentations, workshops, talks, and performances that explore food and cooking as a social practice and draw connections to artistic forms of expression.

Everyone is welcome to stop by and discover the Plaza. What awaits you:

- Installation "shelf life" by Leonardo Bürgi Tenorio. On Sunday with guest Poly Amoral Test Kitchen (Madeleine Noraas)

- Drop-in workshop "Surreal Foodscapes" by Art Lab

- Thematic art corner for the whole family in the Forum foyer

- Das Archiv der vollen Bäuche (The Archive of Full Bellies)

- Film programme "Pat-a-Cake" in the Forum

- Talks and performances take place at the public discourse and performance table:

- Talk I, Fri Aug 28, 2:00 pm: Taste Memories: Food as Connection with Oliwia Hälterlein, Sarina Tharayil, Yariliza Rickenbacher & Arleny Stegmaier. Followed (around 3:15 pm) by the lecture performance «Scents of Memories» by Thi My Lien Nguyen.

- Talk II, Sat Aug 29, 1:30 pm: The Kitchen as Infrastructure for Community with Monika Schärer, Alexandra Stäheli, and Nina Šikić. Followed (around 2:30 pm) by the performance «I wish, we wish…» by Zahra Hakim.

- Talk III, Sun Aug 30, 2:00 pm: The Table as Experimental Space with Sandra Knecht, Lea Kuhn, and Celia & Nathalie Sidler

- Matinée screening "FOOD" by Gordon Matta-Clark. With an introduction by Daniel Kurjaković and breakfast by Papparotto

- Guided tours on the theme visit five selected restaurants and hotels in Basel with a deep connection to art. Architecture tours also allow visits to buildings that once served as infrastructure for food production, storage, or distribution and are now used for cultural purposes.

At our info point in the Plaza, you can also get all the information about the institutions' program, as well as the Art Passport for Kids.

Artistic refreshments are available at walther and at Gelateria EISURU.

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Background "Culinary Infrastructures"

We are currently experiencing an international boom around food, nutrition, and eating: the hype surrounding supper clubs, dinner communities, and the creative rediscovery of food preparation is more present than ever — not only in the art field but across society as a whole. The "Culinary Infrastructures" project takes up these tendencies and approaches the theme of food and cooking from a multi-perspective standpoint.

Since the avant-gardes of the 20th century at the latest, food has been a recurring motif and medium in art — from the Futurists' absurd notions of nutrition to Surrealist dinners with their morbid and ironic elements. With the Fluxus artists and the Happenings movement, food was no longer merely depicted but deployed performatively: as a social, sensory, political, and time-based practice. In the 1990s, Relational Aesthetics took up these approaches again, understanding shared eating explicitly as an artistic format of social relation, and in doing so also opened up perspectives on food cultures and practices beyond the Western canon.

"Culinary Infrastructures" opens up two perspectives, negotiated through contemporary voices: on one hand, the dining table is examined as a space of possibility for shared culinary experiments. Here, curiosity is sparked and knowledge is passed on: Where does our food come from? How is it traditionally processed? And what experimental, sustainable, and ecologically valuable methods of preparation exist? On the other hand, eating and cooking have always been connecting practices. Particularly in politically uncertain times, a renewed need for community is emerging — especially in culturally diverse living environments. Postmigrant perspectives are of particular importance here, allowing questions of care, diaspora experience, identity, and collaborative memory to be explored together in situations involving food.

The centerpiece of the presentation is a public discourse and performance table, designed by Elena Antoni, specially installed for the Kunsttage in the kHaus. It serves simultaneously as a site of research, a stage, and a space for negotiation, linking various performances, talks, and workshops. An accompanying film program further opens up a historical perspective on the theme.

In its realization, the program takes an ecological and in-depth approach, inviting artistic positions and individuals from the region and Switzerland who have already engaged with this thematic field. The table constructed specifically for the project is made from fully recyclable materials and will be reused for future projects.

The individual artistic positions were selected by: Ines Goldbach, Dominique Grisard, Daniel Kurjaković, Mohamed Almusibli, and Nora Lohner.

kHaus promotes exchange, synergies, interactions and encounters – within the building with our users, organisers and visitors, but also on the grounds, in the lively neighbourhood, with neighbours and interested parties in the city and beyond. We are committed to creating a space with multiple uses, where people can try things out and experiment, where we can constructively engage with political and social issues.

During Kunsttage, kHaus serves as the info point for the entire event and other offerings on site.