I am a curator, researcher and an art historian based in the Midlands. My curatorial interests are East-Central European identities and representation, migration and xenoracism, institutional critique, equity in UK-based art institutions. Read more about my work here.
Between October and December 2022, I commissioned artists Dana Olărescu and Noemi Gunea, who collaborated on Food Resilience, a series of weekly workshops debating food politics with Londoners of Eastern European heritage.
Commissioned by POMOC (Polish Migrants Organise for Change), and generously hosted by Calthorpe Community Garden, the project explored food, plant, and cultivation knowledge-sharing as a tactic to withstand and organise during the cost of living crisis.
Alternative economics became an underlying theme. Participants bonded through their shared ancestral fears of famine, violence, and invasion, while dreaming of wider networks of mutual aid. Selected artists were also invited to facilitate the sessions. Artist and educator Magda Fabianczyk invited everyone to make a ‘democratic soup’; performance artist Anca Dimofte asked for soil regeneration pledges during the Day of the Dead celebrations; and fine artists Olha Pryymak and Lika Tarkhan-Mouravi debated Eastern colonialism through the prism of Georgian tea.
A final public-facing event took place in December, with contributions from artists, activists, food lovers, therapists, and other community members whose paths crossed at Calthorpe Community Garden. These included learning about setting up food co-operatives, reflections on migrant land workers’ rights, and navigating daily stresses.
The workshops informed a zine which is freely accessible here.
