Food lab
The Jan van Eyck launched its Food Lab in January 2018 to facilitate an in-depth research platform for artists in relation to food; to experiment with food, to actively explore what food means today, and to consider its relationship to ecological and social issues. The kitchen and café-restaurant are the practical manifestations of the Food Lab, where ideas are tried and tested by participants and public alike.
Artists, chefs and designers whose practice has symbiosis with this sphere of thinking and its practical approaches are invited to apply via the regular Open Call for Applications between July and October. We encourage applicants to enrich the Food Lab each year with their individual visions of food futures.
Our concept and vision for the lunch café is based around three main principles; local, seasonal, and organic produce from independent small-holding farmers, absolute minimum waste and recycling and plant-based sustainability. Combined, these three principles support and encourage an experimental approach to the preparation and preservation of our food.
Food Lab participants 2019/2020 are:
Asako Iwama (born in Tokyo, Japan) is an artist and cook, who lives and works in Tokyo and Berlin. Asako Iwama’s practice has developed around the idea of the ontology of eating. Referring to the social aspects of eating as a metaphor of our relation to nature, Iwama seeks to transform the perception of nourishment, both aesthetically and epistemologically within her practice and work. From 2005 to 2014 she worked at Studio Olafur Eliasson in Berlin. She is the founder of the collective group pop-up café.
In 2018 Rain Wu was the first Van Eyck participant to run the Food Lab in collaboration with chef Marente van der Valk.
The Food Lab can be contacted for the following:
Events Catering / Workshops: please contact Anne Vangronsveld
Food Lab / Artist Collaboration / Exhibitions / External Catering: please contact Marente van der Valk
You can follow the Food Lab on Instagram: instagram.com/vaneyckfoodlab
