Paviljoen_aan_het

May - Sep 2020

For the 2020 summer season, Eathouse cooked and hosted the restaurant at Paviljoen aan het Water in Rotterdam Zuid.

Eathouse’s kitchen takeover took inspiration from FOOD, a restaurant started by artists Carol Goodden, Tina Girourd and Gordon Matta Clarke in New York City in 1971. FOOD provided artists who worked there with an alternative income as well as creating an informal meeting space – where relationships could be made, plans started and ideas exchanged – amid the hustle and bustle of each evening’s service. At this moment, a regularly open artist-run meeting space is missing in Rotterdam. In Rotterdam-Zuid there are also few places to buy affordable and healthy restaurant food. The takeover asked whether such a space is possible amidst the cities rising rents and rush of property investment. Are there also alternatives models of funding and supporting ourselves as artists to be found? Can a space be made that generates a community from its guests, artistic or otherwise, each and every night?

For the takeover Eathouse cooked a selection of dishes from their personal backgrounds, such as Turkish kebabs, Russian salads, vegetarian barbeques and childhood desserts. Taking place during the dramatic shifts of the pandemic, the takeover provided a space for people to meet over food as government measures relaxed.

Eathouse is a collective initiated to provide healthy affordable food, a generous meeting point and workshops on the topics of food culture and sustainable ways of living. It is an initiative set up in 2020 by artists Vlada Predelina, Ulufer Çelik, Merve Kılıçer and Jake Caleb.

photos courtesy Ash Kilmartin, Manon Verkooyen, Vlada Predelina