YuCassava Lab: The Elasticity of Cassava

Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is a starchy root vegetable that is a major source of carbohydrates in tropical regions. Also known as yuca, manioc, or tapioca, Cassava as a material offers a wide range of textures and (in-)consistencies. In this gathering we will establish root connections and will explore what we can learn from cassava when looking for common grounds in quicksands. Cassava will be a platform for sticking together, holding space, stretching time, beating polyrhythms, chewing ideas and digesting emotions.

Neighbours from Wedding and beyond are very welcome to share their Yuca / Cassava / Manioc recipes. 

This gathering will be facilitated by Elia Nurvista and Juan Pablo Garcia Sossa. The YuCassava Lab is conceived as a nets + roots space including the input and exchange of various practitioners such as Diana Pizano, Gosia Lehman, Gabriella Torres Ferrer, ++

JUAN PABLO GARCÍA SOSSA / JPGS   is a designer, researcher and artist fascinated by the clash between emerging technologies and grass-root popular culture in the tropics. JPGS’ practice explores the development of cultures, visions, realities and worlds through the remix and re·appropriation of technologies from a Tropikós perspective (Tropics as Region and Mindset). JPGS has been part of diverse research institutions and design studios and currently is a design research member at SAVVY Contemporary’s Design Department in Berlin and Co-Director of Estación Terrena, a space for artistic research and pluriversing technologies at the iconic electronic street 9th in Bogotá.

JPGS is a 2020 Fellow at EYEBEAM, 2021 Web Fellow at Akademie Schloss Solitude and a 2022 Prince Claus CAREC fellow. In 2021, JPGS initiated Futura Trōpica Netroots, an InterTropical Net of Grass-Root Local Networks connecting communities and nets of support and affection within the Tropical Belt (Latin America and the Caribbean, the African Continent, South Asia and South-East Asia, among many more). It is meant for the lateral exchange of other forms of knowledges, nets and technologies from a Tropikós perspective. In 2022 JPGS developed the curatorial research & netting project MAGICAL HACKERISM OR THE ELASTICITY OF RESILIENCE at SAVVY Contemporary Berlin.

ELIA NURVISTA explores a wide range of art mediums with an interdisciplinary approach and often intersects with politics of food. Through food, she intends to scrutinise power, social, and economic inequality in this world. Using several mediums from workshop, study group, publication, site specific, performance, video and art installations, she explores the social implications of the food system to critically address the wider issues such as ecology, gender, class and geopolitics.

In 2015, she initiated Bakudapan, a food study group, with colleagues from different disciplines. Bakudapan runs on the principle of complementarity and camaraderie between its members. With Bakudapan she has conducted cross references research on food within the socio-political-cultural context. She is also part of Struggles for Sovereignty, the solidarity platform on Land, Water, Farming, Food which aim to build lasting solidarity between groups in Indonesia and trans-national who are engaged with struggles for the right to self-determination over the basic resources that our individual and collective bodies need.