Workshop at the farm La Divina Papaya, Kayambi territory, Ecuador. Credit: Mateo Barriga SalazarThis event heralds the Soil Assembly #2 – Tinku Uku Pacha, to be held 8-11 May 2025 in the Intercultural Community Center Tránsito Amaguaña (CICTA) indigenous farming community of La Chimba, Cayambe, Ecuador, home to important historical women indigenous leaders from the Andes. Launched in 2023 at a first assembly organized during the Kochi Biennale in Kerala, the Soil Assembly initiative is an emerging network promoting soil knowledge, biodiversity conservation, permaculture and food transition in formal and non-formal art and design pedagogies.education.The assembly was founded to aim to connect with a wider audience with the intention to highlight the interventions of various creative collectives and individual artists, activists and communities from around the world that promotes to teaching and transmitting these knowledges for a new generations of art practitioners, activists, farmers, scientists and hackers to contribute to the collective regeneration of the ruines and patchy landscapes of the Anthropocene.
The event will feature an online presentation of the Ecuadorian assembly Tinku Uku Pacha by its general curator Pedro Soler (online); introduce Laboratory Planet journal #6 – Planetary Peasants which elaborates on some of the experiences, reflections and investigations gathered within this network; and hold a public discussion with local guests and the initiators of Soil Assembly , Soil Assembly initiators and the audience. The event will be followed by a visit to the nearby community garden of The Center for Genomic Gastronomy (NAME?) and conclude with a foodculinary experience proposed by Eat artist Maya Minder.
The gathering is also an opportunity to announce and launch a crowdfunding campaign to support the Ecuadorian Soil Assembly #2 organizational community and the preparation of a dedicated Spanish-language edition of The Laboratory Planet, which will then be distributed at the COP30 climate conference in Belem, Brazil, in November 2025.
With Zone2Source, The Center for Genomic Gastronomy (NL), Ewen Chardronnet (FR), Maya Minder (CH), Pedro Soler (ECU), Meena Vari (IN/UAE) and more.
Detailed Programme:
2pm – 2:15 pm
Welcome Ewen Chardronnet and Maya Minder
2:15 – 2:30 pm
Ewen Chardronnet presents the Laboratory Planet #6: Planetary Peasants publication
2:30 – 3:00 pm
2 years after its first edition, Ewen Chardronnet (Makery.Info, FR), Maya Minder (Hackteria, CH), Meena Vari (Rizq Art Initiative, UAE/IN), Neal White (CREAM, Westminster University, UK, tbc), Fiona de Bell & Roel Schoenmakers (Cascoland, NL, tbc), present the Soil Assembly initiative.
3:00 – 3:30 pm
Pedro Soler (ECU) introduces the Soil Assemby #2: Tinku Uku Pacha, Ecuador, May 2025(online)
3:30 – 3:45 pm
Q&A
3:45 – 4:00 pm
Break
4:00 – 4:30 pm
Visit to the garden of The Center of Genomic Gastronomy artists’ collective
4.30 – 5:00 pm
Discussions towards a regional Soil Assembly in Amsterdam
5:00 – 6:00 pm
Eat Art with Maya Minder
This event is supported by the More-Than-Planet program, co-funded by the European Union.
https://www.more-than-planet.eu/
