Slow Disasters

🌎 ¿Cómo habitamos los cambios que atraviesan hoy nuestros territorios y sistemas alimentarios? Les invitamos a participar en Desastres Lentos: transiciones de la tierra y la alimentación, un círculo de estudio que abre un espacio de diálogo ante los procesos graduales, y cada vez más profundos, de degradación ecológica y cultural que afectan al suelo, los sistemas alimentarios y los modos de vida que los sostienen. Desde una mirada situada en los sures, este programa reúne conversaciones sobre suelo, lengua, desplazamientos, cosmologías y alimentación para imaginar otros modos de habitar, cultivar, cocinar y sostener la vida. A lo largo de cinco módulos y encuentros en línea, compartiremos preguntas, experiencias y resonancias colectivas junto a personas invitadas de distintos territorios y prácticas.  💻Modalidad virtual
🗓️ 22 mayo — 26 junio 2026
⏰ 9:00 a 10:30am h (México)
📩 Registro abierto mediante formulario >> enlace en la biografía — Proyecto producido por Cocina Colaboratorio y Looking Forward, con el apoyo de Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur y la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Slow Disasters: Land and Food Transitions is a study circle that opens a space for dialogue around the transformations shaping land and food today, as part of the Mexican edition of the project.  Grounded in a situated perspective from the Souths, this programme brings together conversations on soil, language, displacement, cosmologies and food systems to collectively imagine other ways of inhabiting, cultivating, cooking and sustaining life. Five modules, online sessions, and an open space to share questions, experiences and resonances. 26 May — 23 June 2026 Open call: [email protected] The study group will be in Spanish, a recording with English subtitles will be made available afterwards. Produced by Looking Forward and Cocina Colaboratorio, with the support of Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur and the National Autonomous University of Mexico. @ignaciogutierrezcrocco @la_nutridora @myceliumasmethodology @micadust @calpulli.tecalco @malmoacid @ecosurmx

Slow Disasters: the erosion of everyday landscapes Naming disasters changes the way we inhabit them. Not all disasters arrive as emergencies or visible collapse. Some unfold slowly and silently: in soils that lose fertility, in waters that alter their cycles, in the disappearance of native seeds, in the displacement of ingredients, and in the loss of the desire to care for the land. This is what we call Slow Disasters: a framework for remembering that food systems are living landscapes: territories where life is defended, imagined and renewed. To name them is to recognise that what sustains us is also what must be cared for. #SlowDisasters #LivingSoil #FoodLandscapes #LivingTerritories #RegenerativeFutures SoilMemory

Desastres Lentos: la erosión de los paisajes cotidianos Nombrar los desastres cambia la forma en que los habitamos. No todos los desastres llegan como emergencias o colapsos visibles. Algunos se despliegan lenta y silenciosamente: en suelos que pierden fertilidad, en aguas que alteran sus ciclos, en la desaparición de semillas nativas, en el desplazamiento de ingredientes y en la pérdida del deseo de cuidar la tierra. A esto lo llamamos Desastres Lentos: un marco para recordar que los sistemas alimentarios son paisajes vivos, territorios donde la vida se defiende, se imagina y se renueva. Nombrarlos es reconocer que aquello que nos sostiene es también aquello que debe ser cuidado. Este proyecto es producido por Looking Forward y Cocina Colaboratorio, con el apoyo de Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur y la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. #DesastresLentos #LivingSoil #FoodLandscapes #TerritoriosVivos #RegenerativeFutures MemoriaDelSuelo SlowDisasters

Meet Emilio Hernández (@ehm90 ) from Cocina CoLaboratorio (@cocina_colaboratorio ), the Mexican lead for @slowdisasters . In conversation with @francescafantoni , Emilio reflects on how gatherings around soil, food and shared knowledge become sites for collective ecological learning and regenerative practice. His work in Santo Domingo Tomaltepec activates the Slow Disasters framework through Soil Kitchens, public study groups, and field experiments that invite communities to explore soil agency, biocultural memory, and alternative relationships with the land.  "I’m especially looking into using the framework of Slow Disasters to enunciate and work with the gradual transformations that erode our relationships with the common land. I found that, particularly in local food systems like in Oaxaca, the deepest slow disaster that I recognise is the loss of the desire to be implicated in soil processes." Read the full conversation on Looking Forward's Substack ▶ link in bio 🔗 #transpedagogical #foodactivism #soilcare #collectivelearning #slowdisasters #artandecology Slow Disasters is a long-term, multi-continental project and methodology developed by British artist Andrew Merritt (@somethingandson ). The activation of Slow Disasters in Santo Domingo Tomaltepec, Oaxaca, is developed by Cocina CoLaboratorio, under the direction of Emilio Hernández and with the support of Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo (@museojumex ) . Cover 📷 Cocina CoLaboratorio Annual Gathering, Oaxaca, 2024. Photo: Makus M. Burman). The activation of Slow Disasters in Santo Domingo Tomaltepec, Oaxaca, is developed by Cocina CoLaboratorio, under the direction of Emilio Hernández, with the support of Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo (@museojumex )

Meet Loubie Rusch (@loubie_rusch ) in our network spotlight article “The Plant Commons: Reviving Indigenous Foodways in South Africa”. Loubie is leading the South African activation of @slowdisasters , a multi-continental long-term project by @somethingandson that brings together artists, scientists, farmers and local communities to explore land restoration, biocultural knowledge and regenerative futures. Read the full conversation with @francescafantoni on Looking Forward's Substack 🔗 link in bio. Loubie Rusch is a South African wild food researcher and practitioner whose work focuses on reintegrating Indigenous and locally adaptive edibles into food systems in the Western Cape. Since 2010, she has been learning about, growing and cooking with Indigenous plant foods from the Cape’s biodiverse landscapes, driven by the knowledge that these foods nourished local people through wild harvesting for millennia, yet have largely fallen out of use. Rusch is currently based at the @sustainability.institute in Lynedoch as the founding coordinator of the Local WILD Food Hub. There, her practice brings together cultivation, research, education and public engagement, from food gardens and cultivation trials to kitchens, school feeding programmes and community workshops. #sociallyengagedpractice #plantcommons #foodactivism #Indigenousfoodways #artandecology 📷 1: Loubie with edible creeping perennials. Ph. Dimitri Otis 📷 2: Crowberries, in a sea pumpkin leaf with wild rosemary in the background. Ph. Dimitri Otis 📷 3: Planting the Edible Futures field trial beds at the Sustainability Institute. Ph. Loubie Rusch 📷 4: Tasting workshops at the Sustainability Institute. Ph: Amelia Pretorius 📷 5: Loubie and Dr Nicola Kühn, Research Fellow from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, sorting Sandkool. Ph: Melissa Baird 📷 6: The two books authored by Loubie. Ph. Fiona Dunbar

#andrewmerritt (@somethingandson ) #networkspotlight 🔦 - read the interview by @francescafantoni "Andrew Merritt on Usefulness, World-Building and Silent Activism" on Looking Forward's Substack 🔗 link-in-bio Andrew is a British artist who explores social and ecological issues through experimental, solution-based work, creating permanent installations and functional sculptures that serve as frameworks for communities and ecosystems to build and grow upon. His projects often incorporate alternative economic models to ensure their long-term sustainability. He is the initiator of @slowdisasters , a multi-continental long-term projects that bring together artists, scientists, farmers, and local communities to explore land restoration, biocultural knowledge, and regenerative futures. Andrew frequently works as one half of the duo Something & Son. His projects have been presented internationally at major institutions and events, including Tate Britain, Tate Modern, the V&A, South London Gallery, Manchester International Festival, Gwangju Biennale, Somerset House, the Design Museum, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the Istanbul Design Biennial. Alongside his artistic practice, he is a co-founder of Makerversity at Somerset House and Mission Kitchen in London, both platforms supporting creative and food-based enterprises. #sociallyengagedart #artandecology #worldbuilding #activism #artandactivism 📷 photo 1: Andrew Merritt 📷 photo 2: Intertidal Allotment (2025) 📷 photo 3: A Common Ground at Tate Britain (2018) 📷 photo 4: Soil Kitchen, installation in the exhibition SOIL: The World at Our Feet at Somerset House (2025) 📷 photo 5: Food for Landscapes: Recipes for Slow Disasters, Cape Town Design Week (2025)

A few weeks back, we stepped into an exhibition that reimagines how food, land and history can heal each other 🌿 Food for Landscapes: Recipes for Slow Disasters traced the Lynedoch Valley’s foodscape across time from pre-colonial foods, to early colonial crops, to what grows today, and the regenerative futures possible when indigenous land rights are restored. Through maps, flavours and visual artefacts, the work exposed how colonial agriculture, climate pressure and inequality have reshaped the landscape, and invited us to rethink how we cook, eat and design for repair. We found it fascinating, challenging, and deeply necessary. ✨️ Huge respect to Andrew Merritt, Loubie Rusch and the Lynedoch community for creating space for activism, reflection and land-based healing. ✅️ For more of this important work, follow @loubie_rusch and @sustainability.institute , @slowdisasters (link to the full report in this bio) and @somethingandson and dive into the stories, maps and ideas that are shaping 😊

🌿 Available now to download ▶ Slow Disasters in the Lynedoch Valley: Narrative Report 🔗 free via the link in bio. A document with texts and images tracing the first activation of @slowdisasters in the Lynedoch Valley, mapping histories of land, food, and biocultural loss, and gathering community-made “recipes” for repair. By Andrew Merritt (@somethingandson ) and Loubie Rusch (@loubie_rusch ). #SlowDisasters #FieldHospital #LynedochValley #EcologicalRestoration #BioculturalRepair The project in SA was supported by the British Council, Design Week South Africa, and the Centre of Excellence in Food Security, and hosted at Church House, Cape Town. Slow Disasters is a project initiated by Andrew Merritt and produced by Looking Forward. The initial implementations of the project are realised in partnership with the University of Cambridge (UK), Local WILD Food Hub at The Sustainability Institute (SA) and Cocina Colaboratorio at UNAM National Autonomous University of Mexico, with the support of Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo and Gaia Art Foundation.

Our photos 📸 from Food for Landscapes at #designweeksouthafrica tell just a fraction of what happened last month in Cape Town. Andrew Merritt (@somethingandson ) and Loubie Rusch (@loubie_rusch ) brought four maps of the Lynedoch Valley to life, from deep past to near future, using taste, memory, and storytelling to understand how landscapes and food cultures have shifted over centuries and surfacing memories of land loss, hope, knowledge, and the possibility of change. Thank you to everyone who joined, spoke, drew, mapped, tasted, and held space with us + thanks to our partners @britishcouncil @britisharts @sustainability.institute @thisislookingforward @gaiaartfoundation . This is only the beginning! #FieldKitchen #FieldHospital #SlowDisasters #DesignWeekCapeTown #ArtAndEcology #FoodAndLandscape #CommunityVoices #LynedochValley #SouthAfrica

Slow Disasters artist Andrew Merritt (@somethingandson ) and wild food expert Loubie Rusch (@makingkos ) will introduce “Food for Lanscapes” on Saturday, 18 October at Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden (@kirstenbosch_garden_centre ) during this public event by the indigenous nursery and botanical studio Happy by Nature (@happybynature_ ). Follow the link in bio to know more about our work in Cape Town within the @designweeksouthafrica . Partners: @britishcouncil @sustainability.institute @local_wild_food_hub @thisislookingforward @gaiaartfoundation #FieldHospital #SlowDisasters #EcologicalRestoration #CapeTownDesignWeek #CommunityEcology #LocalWild #SustainabilityInstitute

What food does the landscape need? and Can recipes become tools for repair? “Food for Landscapes: Recipes for Slow Disasters” at Design Week Cape Town 📍 Church House, 1 Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town 🗓 23–25 Oct 10:00–17:00 🗓 26 Oct 10:00–16:00 💬 Interactive Session: 26 Oct 14:00–15:30 (RSVP link in bio) Field Kitchen, part of Field Hospital: Nurseries for Slow Disasters, uses art, food, and ecological research to explore how damaged landscapes can be restored. The term Slow Disasters, coined by artist Andrew Merritt, refers to the long-term erosion of ecosystems and culture. For this first activation in South Africa, Merritt collaborated with Loubie Rusch and the Sustainability Institute in the Lynedoch Valley, with support from the British Council and Design Week South Africa. 🧭 A project by Andrew Merritt (@somethingandson ) & Loubie Rusch (@loubie_rusch ) 🪴 Part of Field Hospital: Nurseries for Slow Disasters @britishcouncil @sustainability.institute @local_wild_food_hub @thisislookingforward @gaiaartfoundation @designweeksouthafrica #FieldKitchen #FieldHospital #SlowDisasters #DesignWeekCapeTown #BritishCouncil #AndrewMerritt #LoubieRusch #SustainabilityInstitute #ArtAndEcology #FoodAndLandscape #lookingforwardartprojects

How can we collectively unearth the ghosts of degraded landscapes and ask what it means to feed a place back to life? ⏰ Thursday, 29 May, 6.30 to 8.30 pm 📍 @delfinafdn , London 🎟 Free, but booking is essential 🔗 Registration at the link in bio This event marks the first public gathering of the Field Hospital project, a long-term transdisciplinary initiative led by artist Andrew Merritt. The project focuses on restoring degraded landscapes—termed “slow disaster” zones—by reconnecting ecological and cultural histories. The evening will delve into how food can serve as both a metaphor and a method for healing damaged ecosystems. 🎤 The session will feature contributions from core team members, including artists Andrew Merritt (@somethingandson ), Maya Marshak (@mayamarshak ) and Emilio Hernández Martínez (@ehm90 ), curator Carolina Lio and archaeologist Nik Petek-Sargeant. The event will include a short introduction to the Field Hospital project, a one-hour exploration of the concept of slow disasters, and an open group discussion. An excerpt from a relevant reading will be shared during the session, with the option for attendees to receive it in advance. The evening will conclude with refreshments, including snacks and both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Field Hospital is a project initiated by Andrew Merritt and produced/curated by Looking Forward. The initial implementations of the project are realised in partnership with the University of Cambridge (UK), Sustainability Institute (SA) and Cocina Colaboratorio (@cocina_colaboratorio ) at UNAM National Autonomous University of Mexico, with the support of Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo (@museojumex ) and Gaia Art Foundation (@gaiaartfoundation ).