The first CLIMAVORE Assembly takes place in Rome, 28-29 October 2023

From 28–29 October 2023, the first CLIMAVORE Assembly takes place in Rome addressing the role culture can play in a transition towards food justice rooted in ecologically-driven infrastructures. It is promoted by Visible (a project by Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto and Fondazione Zegna), long term partner Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation, and CLIMAVORE x Jameel at RCA, in collaboration with Museo delle Civiltà of Rome, Gaia Art Foundation, Teiger Foundation and Hartwig Art Foundation.

Through a range of presentations, meals, debates and workshops, the international gathering explores cultural and artistic tactics for ecologically-driven action and policymaking. The Assembly brings together farmers, artists, chefs, growers, cooperatives, hospitality businesses, researchers, cultural thinkers, environmentalists, civic leaders, seed keepers and policymakers to reimagine the role museums and cultural institutions have as agents of transformation in food and agriculture systems within the climate crisis. Bringing together dozens of grassroots organisations from Italy and the wider Mediterranean with initiatives in other parts of the world, the CLIMAVORE Assembly is a platform to address the role culture can play in a transition towards food justice rooted in ecologically-driven infrastructures.

On Saturday, 28 October 2023, the Museum of Civilisations will host the first day of the CLIMAVORE Assembly offering inspirational springboards from a range of voices. Together we will think about how food can be a lens through which to address the challenges posed by the climate crisis, as well as the cultural shifts and actions required to support agrobiodiversity, soil health, public bodies, alternative market ethics and living seed collections.

On Sunday, 29 October 2023, the second day takes place as a civic parliamentary debate. The session is dedicated to debate the strategies, actions and commitments of cultural institutions to address the climate crisis through food. It includes keynote presentations by Frances Morris, Director Emerita, Tate Modern and Parviz Koohafkan, Founder and President, World Agricultural Heritage Foundation among others. A series of case studies will debate ‘Becoming CLIMAVORE’ as a stage for experimentation about the role culture and cultural institutions can have as agents supporting more hopeful food futures in agriculture and society at large. The day will close with a Merende night session hosted by Angelo Mai Collective.

Initiated by Cooking Sections in 2015, CLIMAVORE is a research platform that questions how we eat as humans change climates. It works to envision regenerative diets and food infrastructures for new human-made seasons. By forging links between art, cultural and agricultural spaces, between restaurants and producers, and between civic leaders and educators, CLIMAVORE develops research, pedagogical programmes, curatorial frameworks and cooking apprenticeships to implement transformation.

Launched in 2020, the ‘Becoming CLIMAVORE’ campaign rethinks menus across restaurants, cafes and canteens in cultural and educational institutions. Starting in the UK with Tate, farmed salmon was removed from the menus across their four museums and replaced with regenerative aquaculture products that proactively respond to marine ecologies. Engaging now more than 20 institutions worldwide, including Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Serpentine Galleries, London, Istanbul Biennial, V&A, London, and KØS, Køge, ‘Becoming CLIMAVORE’ has evolved into a movement to address the seasons of the climate crisis, from drought to polluted seas and soil infertility.

The Assembly builds on two fellowships from the ‘Visible project’, which enabled CLIMAVORE to lay the foundation for a long-term project in Italy. The first of which was initiated in collaboration with Locales. The Assembly draws on the experience of the ‘Visible Temporary Parliaments’, which, since 2015 have temporarily occupied city parliaments with socially engaged art projects, to infuse new perspectives in democratic debates. Research for the CLIMAVORE Assembly has been produced with CLIMAVORE x Jameel at the Royal College of Art, London.

CLIMAVORE Assembly is made possible thanks to the support of: American Academy in Rome, Academia Belgica, Real Academia de España en Roma, Deutsche Akademie Rom Villa Massimo and Circolo Scandinavo in Rome.