Lunar Tides and the Spirals of the Universe. Encounter/dinner with Luiza Prado De O. Martins

Dates: Thursday July 27th

Time: 19:00-20:00

RSVP is required at luiza@luiza-prado.com

 

“Lunar Tides and the Spirals of the Universe” is a food installation and performance-dinner; a ritual exploring the separation of food from the realm of the commons, to its positioning as commodity mediated through spectacle and performance under capitalist and colonial systems. Looking at spiritual practices meant to invoke both forces of change as desire, extinction, fertility and death, this edible artwork explores the ongoing historical pathways of an ancient spice, medicine, and aphrodisiac called silphium — a plant overharvested to extinction during the Roman Empire, triggering waves of destruction and chaos that echo through time and space.  The work takes as a starting point the Cult of Sylphis — an ancient religious practice revolving around the planting, tending, growth, protection, sharing, and consumption of silphium in Antiquity — to explore changing forms of worship and spiritual practices in the context of climate disaster.

BIO

Luiza Prado De O. Martins is an artist, activist and researcher. Her work moves between installation and food, using performance and ritual as a way of invitation and activation for audiences. Her practice explores relations and knowledge between food, infrastructures and technology, and questions what structures and process are needed for collective concerns of care. She holds a PhD from the University of the Arts Berlin, and an MA from the University of the Arts Bremen. Her ongoing artistic research project, “Un/Earthings and Moon Landings” narrates the extinction and later reappearance of an ancient contraceptive, aphrodisiac and spice, called silphium, through a series of artworks. She has exhibited and performed work at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art Warsaw, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Savvy Contemporary, Akademie Schloss Solitude, and Kampnagel, among others. She is currently based in Berlin.

 

RSVP: luiza@luiza-prado.com

Event held onsite: Donaustr. 84, 12043 Berlin

Image credit: Luiza Prado De O. Martins