Edible Playscapes: An Embodied Dining Experience

Join artist-designer Alejandra Alarcón in experiencing Edible Playscapes: An Embodied Dining Experience at Mediamatic from April 23rd to May 3rd. Discover how eating as play can positively transform the traditional Western dining experience, all without cutlery.

The Dinner
This unique performance experience is brought to you in partnership with TestTafel Foundation. Your evening begins in our Haeckel Room, where you'll savor the first three courses of TestTafel's innovative, fully vegan dinner. Expect an experimental menu that's both future-forward and deeply rooted in seasonal, local ingredients, with global culinary influences. Their in-house chefs craft a new plant-based menu each week, unveiled every Wednesday. After this delightful culinary experience, you'll be guided to our historic Sluisdeurenloods building to continue with the performance.

The Performance
By reimagining the dining table as a playscape, this project empowers individuals to explore with their bodies, experiment freely, and create food combinations that encourage reflections on our dining rituals. The shared metal surface, reminiscent of a food preparation area, provides a space where making a mess is acceptable and encouraged. Play becomes a means of engaging creatively and meaningfully, while emphasizing touch as a mindful and intimate way of eating, one that challenges conventional social and cultural norms.

About the artist
Alejandra Alarcón (she/her) is a Mexican interdisciplinary designer/artist based in Helsinki working at the intersection of food and art. Grounded in themes of commensality, embodied knowledge, and the politics of belonging, her practice often includes walking, writing, drawing, baking, cooking, and nurturing for/with others. 

From mid April until mid May Alejandra will be at Mediamatic doing a residency around her project Edible Playscapes: An Embodied Dining Experience. The project includes research, interviews, a workshop event and a final performance and is part of the Sanctuary for Sensory Participation program.

Het AFK ondersteunt Mediamatic met een vierjarige subsidie. 

Datum: 23-04-2025 t/m 03-05-2025
Locatie: Mediamatic
Meer informatie: https://www.mediamatic.net/en/page/392148/edible-playscapes