Edible City

#artisticpractice #publicspace

In the 5-day workshop, we will explore movements and initiatives that engage with food and the urban environment. We will visit Schrebergärten, collective farms, city beehives and artistic food collectives in order to learn how to reclaim urban spaces.

The terms “Klauben” and “gleaning” describe a historic, and at times criminalised, practice of collecting what is left after a harvest and the foraging of edible plants in ones environment.

As gentrification and competition for urban space intensify in cities such as Berlin, new strategies are needed to resist these changes. Perhaps it is time to translate the historic foraging traditions into contemporary practices, reclaiming urban space to become more self-sufficient.

We will explore Berlins artistic food collectives and meet artists and designers who engage with food in their practice. 
Together with these facilitators, we will investigate how to identify edible plants and practice urban foraging, build collective initiatives within neighbourhoods, recognise polluted urban environments, and explore ways to remediate them.

At each location, we will engage through cooking, tasting, and experimenting, while building a collective archive of strategies that participants can “re-plant” in their own contexts after returning home.

The urban challenges serve as a framework to address the Summer School 2026 motto: Do we have enough food? Do we have enough space? Do we have enough city? And is it time to imagine a new urban strategy?

Schedule

Monday - 3rd August
Meet-up at University of Arts Berlin

Tuesday - 4th August
Introduction to foraging in the city space with artist Jasmine Parsley

Wednesday - 5th August
Trip to Neukölln’s wonder places

Thursday - 6th August
Guest Visit at TU Kitchen Hub (guest http://alisagoikhman.com) (tbc) 

Friday - 7th August

Guest Masha Fehse (architect who build different outdoors kitchens, from solar cookers to the oven in which we will cook the dinner) (tbc)
Collective dinner and cooking at the outdoors wood-fire over at Bündnis Feuer und Flamme

Knowledge requirements

• Interest in Material research and experimenting
• Interest in collective initiatives and urban practices

Equipment requirements

Laptop to conduct own research and presentation

Gosia Lehmann is a trans-disciplinary artist, researcher, performer, filmmaker and chef, based in  Berlin. Using techniques from film and theatre, she explores the interdependent relationship between fact and belief. Staging, re-enacting and performing magic tricks are her tools to investigate the subjectivity of ‘knowing’. Her current research deals with belief systems in the context of ‘Economic Shamanism– ’ a condition in capitalism that describes the ambivalent relationship between superstition and algorithms in the world of finances. Gosia studied art and design at Central Saint Martins in London, UdK, Berlin and Tama Art University in Tokyo. She is a guest lecturer at the University of Arts in Berlin.

https://www.gosialehmann.net/

Paula Erstmann (she/her) is an artist who works mainly with food as her artistic medium. Her performances, menus and food installations explore the social contexts of the food she uses and are artistic research projects between art and the everyday. The culinary work of the Berlin-based artist opens up both sensory and social spaces. With her work and the idea of eating together, she wants to overcome boundaries and create space for dialogue. Paula Erstmann is a food poet and social activist. What kind of stories does the food we eat tell us? The tableware, the textiles, the table we eat from? What collective memories does food awaken in us?

https://www.instagram.com/paulaerstmann/