„[...] As the ecological
disaster unfolds [...],for lack of anything better, we can celebrate the disastrous synchronicity
that forces us to acknowledge the existence of interactions and connections between
cultures, forms of life, and ecosystems. […] Humans and nonhumans […] have
been forced to invent a
mode of cooperation […]. "
Nicolas Bourriaud,
INCLUSIONS.
It is high–time for a re-evaluation of the human role within the global ecosystem; humans are embedded in a deep network within local and global ecosystems, forming relations to microscopic unicellular organisms and as gigantic 'intangible' atmospheric hyperobjects like global warming – more than pre-cut–shrink-wrapped vegetables and perfectly-pink meat, extracted with surgical precision make us believe nowadays; in our 'urban' environment, surrounded by standardised products, commodities and technology, we tend to forget that these relations with all nonhuman 'inhabitants' of the ecosystem – animal, vegetal, atmospheric – and the way we maintain them, are inevitably linked to our wellbeing. Our dream kitchen is discarding conveyor-belt mass-produced food, environmental exploitation and non-circular disposable products towards a "new primitivism ": we willingly step down from modernity's pedestal, declaring humans the "conquerors of nature" and let ourselves be entangled within a heterogeneous, hierarchically flat ecosystem as one equal subject amongst many!
What better place to experience and re-evaluate this entanglement than in the kitchen,
where we are as physically close to our interaction with the ecosystem by manually preparing,
chewing, swallowing, digesting and excreting as possible?
In the evolution of kitchen typology, the oversaturation of daily life tends to cause the disappearance of the kitchen. Cooking, sharing a meal and health benefits of self-prepared food
are not prioritised for most of the population. In contrast to the minimum kitchen, with high
efficiency and technological engineering, our dream kitchen is spread over a garden as elements
of a cosmos with low-effort, slow cooking stations; the hybridisation of garden and kitchen -
"origin "and "processing "- forms a new circular holism. Through physically internalising its'
produce, the ecosystem becomes an intrinsic part of the subject, which becomes a "relay "in a stream of the heterogeneous subjects' relations and effects constituting the garden; the garden forms a subject itself, oscillating between what we Westerners would call "wilderness "and "domesticated "vegetation, an ever-changing organic field of objects – natural, manufactured and hybrid.
The kitchen is no longer a space of separation – ecologically and socially: one family member will no longer spend long cooking time alone while others spend time together in the living room, for example. In our proposal, the kitchen is embedded in the other activities of daily domestic life; children have enough space to play, do their homework or help with domestic tasks.
Chores will be shared: the elderly watch the children during the day, and the late riser students babysit in the night; early riser workers prepare the slow-cooked food in the morning while parttime employees prepare the table and serve food in the evening; a social, participatory ecosystem will emerge around the kitchen.
INSTALLATION I. CHAUME SUBLIME.
FESTIVAL DES ARCHITECTURES VIVES. MONTPELLIER, FR. 2025.