The Vegetable Parliament: THE CONQUERING BANQUET

Seven months after we planted the seeds brought from Mexican milpas to the soil of silent green, we are finally reaching the end of the agrarian calendar. Today, a completely green Parliament can be found that disserves to be celebrated. 

The vegetables, plants and flowers that have grown in this milpa are not simply food or vegetation—they are carriers of stories and cosmologies that can be traced back to centuries old Mayan milpas. They are witnesses of reciprocal ecosystems, care of natural resources and circular economies.

In this final act, thought as a poetic reimagining of “ofrendas” or offerings, we plan to honour them. Not only as a singular moment of gratitude, but as a collaborative and symbolic ritual of understanding the wider stories that migrating seeds bring with them.

The Conquering Banquet takes form as a participatory installation that has a working kitchen as its beating heart. Searching to bind the visible to the invisible, memory to matter, offering to act, participants are invited to celebrate this harvest ceremony, by sharing dishes composed of multiple parts that require connection, cooperation, and reciprocity to be fully experienced. 

Disguised as food, we will discover that the plants have other plans: A conquering voyage of our bodies. Its goal is not domination, but transformation. Maybe hearing the vegetables was the answer all along…

More about the “The Vegetable Parliament”: www.thevegetableparliament.com

Saturday, October 18
Garden
Start: 4 pm
Admission free. If you are interested in participating you can subscribe till October 12 by sending an email to: theconqueringbanquet@gmail.com.
 

Team
Artist The Conquering Banquet: Inés Lauber
Artistic Director “The Vegetable Parliament”: José Délano

“The Vegetable Parliament” is funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds.