Vitenparken

The art exhibition Food Phreaks! Biodiversity of the Kitchen

Artists: Center for Genomic Gastronomy(CGG)

The exhibition will be shown at Norwegian Bioart Arena (NOBA) / Vitenparken

September 24 – December 30

Free admission

What happens when artists let loose in the kitchen to explore our eating habits and food systems, seen in light of technological developments, cultural references and ecological perspectives?

For the first time in Norway, the art projects that The Center for Genomic Gastronomy has produced over the past ten years are presented. Driven by their artistic curiosity to explore an alternative edible future, they have cross-pollinated amateur science with multimedia art, resulting in prototypes, speculative projects and culinary events.

The artist duo behind the project has achieved international recognition and has presented their works at the Victoria and Albert Museum and Kew Gardens in London, the ArtScience Museum in Singapore, Medialab Prado in Madrid, V2 and DEAF in Rotterdam and the Delfina Foundation in Dubai – to name a few.

The exhibition Food Phreaks is produced by Norwegian Bioart Arena – NOBA.

This newly established permanent arena for Bioart in Norway organizes art exhibitions and events with Norwegian and international artists and researchers with a focus on sustainable development, the environment and bioscience.

NOBA is a project of Vitenparken Campus Ås – a science center dedicated to the environment, food and climate change, located at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.

The exhibition at NOBA presents a selection from the artists' increasingly extensive archive, showcasing the Center for Genomic Gastronomy's many projects over a decade.

Since 2010, the artist duo Cathrine Kramer (NO) and Zack Denfeld (USA) have established collaborations with an international team of designers, makers, chemists, researchers and microbiologists to develop art-science projects. Together, they have activated and cultivated projects that investigate how our relationship with food, food systems and food culture evolves in constant flux along with the development of technology and environmental issues. By initiating local collaborations and conversations with scientists, chefs, hackers and farmers, they have cultivated a rich artistic research practice. They create social and tasty think tanks, produce publications and exhibitions by activating artistic and edible events all over the world. The Center for Genomic Gastronomy offers nourishing projects for reflection on how we can address and speculate on issues such as equitable food systems. Through their tastefully crafted provocations, the audience is invited to expand their concepts of the future of food.

Visit the exhibition and get ready to be treated to concepts like tasty pollution with the project “Smog Tasting”, or to explore the concept of “ArtMeatFlesh” which, through an Iron Chef-style cooking competition, investigates whether lab-grown meat is truly a sacrifice-free meat. Or perhaps learn more about their project that includes humans in the food chain with the project “To Flavour our Tears”. No – it’s not about cannibalism, we promise!

We hope this exhibition can inspire visitors to experience how artists can engage in rich collaboration and themes with an interdisciplinary approach, and that it invites them to reflect on how the food on our plates and in our guts is closely connected to larger issues such as climate change, technology, innovations, migratory patterns and cultural references.

Enjoy your meal!

Hege Tapio
Curator at Norwegian BioArt Arena - NOBA

Curator: Hege Tapio

Project coordinator and communication: Elina Gobeti

Technique : Inspire to Action

Photo : Joe Urrutia / Inspire to Action

Taste Ås 2021

During the Smak Ås food festival on October 16, the artists re-activated the competition “Norway’s New National Dish” which was initiated by then Minister of Agriculture Sylvi Listhaug in 2014.

This time, The Center for Genomic Gastronomy (CGG) presented the study with a plot twist: the new twist Norvegan National Dish . Norvegan National Dish tested how our meat-loving palates can embrace a vegan future. Can they tempt Norwegians with veganism?

Norwegian National Dish is part of CGG's ongoing project New National Dishes , which researches vegan national dishes around the world.