#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 visit Schrebergärten, collective urban farms, city’s beehives, and Berlins artistic food collectives (such as Bündnis Feuer und Flamme, TDD, Soy Division etc.).

Together with these facilitators, we will investigate how to:

•     identify edible plants and practice urban foraging
•     grow vegetables and herbs in small spaces
•     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?

With Gosia Lehmann (trans-disciplinary artist, researcher, performer, filmmaker and chef) and Valerian Blosassistant (professor for the fundamentals of design and new media in visual communication)

More information: https://summer-university.udk-berlin.de/?id=654