On Tuesday, July 17th, Cohabitation Strategies co-founder Lucia Babina presented the project Collaborative Kitchen at Atelier Luma in the neighborhood of Griffeuille (Arles, France). During the first part of the evening Henri Madeuf, psychotherapist and actor, and founder of the association Capacité interviewed Lucia Babina about her past projects and her way of working with communities. The second part of the event, on the other hand, focused more specifically on the project Collaborative Kitchen developed by Lucia Babina, during her 2017-2018 residency at Atelier Luma, in collaboration with Marianne Dos Reis (project manager at Atelier Luma), Anne Drilleau (founder of the local association Petit à Petit), and Bénédicte Hossenlop (botanist and founder of the association A Corps et à Plantes). The discussion took place at the Mécanique Générale workshop. The cocktail offered to the guests and participants was prepared by the kitchen project DO WE DREAM UNDER THE SAME SKY developed by conceptual artist Rirkrit Tiravanija and architects Nikolaus Hirsch and Michel Müller in collaboration with the staff of the Collective Kitchen.

Collaborative Kitchen is a project that uses the kitchen to engage cooks, artists and community members in a dialogue on food. It promotes knowledge exchange on food between inhabitants, stimulates local development through education, creates awareness on the cycle of food, and facilitates accessibility to local healthy food. In collaboration with local associations from the neighborhood of Arles, Griffeuille, the project tests different concepts related to food including the use of local and seasonal products, the creation of community gardening, and the power of shared kitchens. Taking advantage of the growing interest in culinary art, this initiative allows both the creation of a space for individual expression and the emergence of a true community of cooks. The kitchen becomes a base and an engine generating a change of life, undertaking a transition to sustainable economic growth and making visible a part of the community. For more information about this project, click here.