Food Art Week

This year's Food Art Week (FAW) Berlin will take place in August. They will be occupying Steinplatz, a public space in Berlin across from the University of the Arts (UdK), for the whole month of August, with greenhouses which are used as spaces for art installations and educational practice. We talked to Taina Guedes about her motivation and ambitions for the FAW this year.

What’s this year’s Food Art Week theme and how does it compare to the last years?

Every year I choose a different topic to research and explore at Food Art Week. The first year, 2015, we discovered different connections food, art and sustainability could make together. The second year, we explored the topic of Food Waste and its impact in our planet. The year after, meat production and consumption. Last year, sugar, and its impact in our health, in the environment, in people’s and animal’s lives. This year, we are investigating how our food production affects our water. 

How do you go about setting up the annual Food Art Week in Berlin?

After talking to the president of the Berliner water company, and figuring out that actually we both have the same “enemies” – the meat and food industries – I’ve decided that this should be definitely the topic of this year Food Art Week. I have been working with students from different countries on this since a year and a half. I am working with Amadeus Lindemann, Prof. María José García and students of Friedensburg OS, on a movie about water and food, which aims to be an educational video, available for free download to all schools, kindergarten and people interested in educating others on this topic.