International Stomachs
Gent, 2024
This project was created in collaboration with Lucrecia Wang, Phoebe Vandercammen, Anastasiia Sharoshkina and Maryam Beigi and
is part of a broader project initiated and undertaken by Futurefarmers, De Koer, De Goedinge, Campus Atelier, Viernulvier, and KASK.
De Goedinge, a local community farm just outside of Gent in Belgium, distributes fresh vegetables around the city, transporting them via the canals on a solar powered boat. The project uses the farm as the starting point to investigate its supply chain and the broader food inequalities around the city.
Working within the social housing complex of Watersportbaan in Gent, a district situated by the water that leads to De Goedinge, but which is deserted of shops to supply the many that live there, we chose to reflect on our own predominantly migrant backgrounds as a tool to discuss food heritages and to build connections with residents in the area. Through multiple culinary interventions in the neighbourhood, the project cumulated in a procession where we involved the neighbourhood in planting food, telling (origin) stories and recording wishes for how the area can become a fertile ground for those living there, which we then fed back to the city council.
This project continues in 2024, and a boat delivery of food from De Goedinge
will begin in the neighbourhood.
Photos by Leontien Allemeersch