argilla – A Culinary Installation with Blanka Major and Cassandra Hänggi

argilla - lat. clay

A crack beneath your feet. Cool stone against skin. The earth breathes. argilla is a site-specific culinary installation—an act of devouring the ground itself. Bodies move through the pit, touch sediment, inhale minerals, consume time. Clay wraps, heat seeps in, textures fracture. The menu follows a geological score – loose, compacted, crystalline – mirroring our own corporeality. The earth becomes flesh: feeding, shaping, and remembering. In this ritual of taste and touch, we take in the land —and let it take us. 

On the weekend from 15.08 - 17.08.2025 Blanka Major and Cassandra Hänggi, in collaboration with the Art x Science Office, invite you to experience the «Grube[n]» through the taste of earth: a culinary installation that unfolds in 2 acts, accompanied by insights into the diverse research of Dr. Nadine Keller, Dr. Soledad Castro Vargas, Tiia Määttä and Dr. Xavier Balaguer Rasillo of theDepartment of Geography at the University of Zurich. Through site-specific cooking with fire and water, interwoven with scientific impulses, the earth itself becomes the stage, the bearer of flavor, and the canvas of stories – creating a collective, place-bound dining experience that challenges our ideas of shared eating.

Fr 15.08. - all day - setup, open to the public

Sa 16.08. - 7 pm - Act I: ignis with Tiia Määttä and Dr. Soledad Castro Vargas
The beginning is fire: heat, transformation, rupture. In a performative cooking action, raw earth meets embers, water meets stone, bodies meet metabolism. The shared meal becomes a ritual moment – an invitation to directly confront the earth, to experience it sensually through temperature, steam, and smoke, framed by scientific contributions. Here, tasting begins with the dissolution of the familiar.

Su 17.08. - 5pm - Act II: sedimentum with Dr. Nadine Keller and Dr. Xavier Balaguer Rasillo
The embers: rest, cooling, compression. The courses unfold slowly, reminiscent of sedimentation and time. Ferments, mineral textures, the stillness of sediments. Visitors move through the pit, taste layers, listen to traces. Scientific contributions accompany this deceleration – the sediment as an archive that stores the body, not just encases it.

Location: Grubenstrasse 39, 8045 Zürich
Tickets available via Eventfrog.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Tickets
We kindly ask you to purchase your tickets in advance; we recommend using Twint: +41 78 725 55 05.
The ticket price includes all culinary offerings as well as a welcome drink. Alcoholic beverages are not included but can be purchased separately on-site. The menu is based on local, mostly vegetarian ingredients and will be prepared as part of a site-specific culinary installation. Please inform us of any allergies or intolerances – unfortunately, we cannot customize the menu for individual needs.

Accessibility
Due to the nature of the venue, the event is only partially accessible. Some parts of the installation, for example, can only be reached via a steep staircase.

With
Dr. Nadine Keller – Hydrology and Climate
Dr. Xavier Balaguer Rasillo  – Economic Geography
Tiia Määttä – Soil Science and Biogeochemistry
Dr. Soledad Castro Vargas – Economic Geography
Blanka Major –  Artistic Director / Menu / Room Concept 
Cassandra Hänggi – Artistic Director / Culinary team / Recipe Development

More infos about Grube[n] - Garage für Zusammenkunft und zeitgenössische Kunst: Instagram or Telegram Channel.