Beyond Beans: The Exploration of a Culinary Artifact
A Bean as a Starting Point for Transformation
Wednesday, December 17, 6–9 pm
DasProvisorium Zürich
The third event in the series «Perspectives of Change – Exploring Sustainability Through Arts and Design» invited participants to rediscover the bean – as a culinary artifact, a vessel of cultural memory, and a connecting piece to sustainability, culture, and ecology.
Can a single ingredient become a key to transformation? Can food, beyond consumption, become a starting point for reflection, dialogue, and collective action?
In an artistic and participatory workshop, we explored what a bean can tell us – about origin and cultivation, climate and taste, community and memory. Together with experts from the fields of nutrition, sustainability, and food culture, we cooked, experimented, shared, and discussed. Out of this emerges a shared meal, a sensory experience that not only nourishes but also raised questions: How do we want to eat, live, and connect with one another – and with the Earth – in the future?
Here, the bean serves as a culinary artifact that goes beyond its nutritional value: it points to an intricate web of soil, climate, culture, and knowledge – aspects often overlooked in the context of industrial overproduction. By turning our attention to it, we opened up a broader understanding of nourishment – as cultural practice and as an act of care.
Beyond Beans invited us to perceive eating as a space of regeneration, as a practice of sharing, learning, and connecting – a place where experience turns into insight and new perspectives can take root.
Contributors
Prof. Dr. Christine Brombach – ZHAW, Research Group Food Perception
Nicole Perez – Designer, Futures Consultant, Researcher
Karin Zindel – Co-Director, ZHdK Sustainability in the Arts
Bamna Dadashzadeh – Research Associate, ZHdK Sustainability in the Arts
An initiative of Prorektorat Bildung, Sustainability in the Arts.
The series opens up new perspectives on how sustainability can be reimagined and practically explored within artistic and design contexts.