The Salty Dinner
2021

“The Salty Dinner’ is interdisciplinary project that addresses the issue of soil salinisation and its far-reaching consequences for food consumption and biodiversity in the Netherlands.  The project aims to develop processes to facilitate engagement for an urban audiance through its immersive and participatory nature. The performative activation activation is manifested through a shared culinary experience, consisting of a three-course meal.  Each course signifies distinct levels of salinity - low, medium, and high tolerance, and is accompanied by crops capable of cope that level. The table setting incorporates objects made out s salt-based polymer and high-salinity wild clay, gathered from a Zeeland research field, while the crops are supplied by ZEEUWS ZILT, employing saline agricultural techniques. The dinner table represents an extreme and accelerated landscape which becomes a fertile ground to foster conversation on soil salinitation, water scarsity and saline ecosystems .