THE TABLECLOTH AS A COLLECTIVE MANIFESTO The Tablecloth as a Collective Manifesto, is a project that delves into the anthropological significance of food and its cultivation. Dora and Anna’s research follows the journey of plant growth and the stages of food production and preparation, examining how food can be transformed into a tool for community processes and can serve as a catalyst for community building. The project is informed by the aspect of commensality and is materealised through a series of communal meals. As artists, researchers, cooks, and project facilitators, Dora and Anna invite professionals from various disciplines -artists, architects, farmers, academics etc.- to these meals. These gatherings create temporal spaces for knowledge exchange and collective envisioning for a sustainable future. Each meal is aligned with one of the four seasons and explores a stage in the cycle of nature and plants -roots, stems, flowers, harvests- while a fifth meal is dedicated to the reflection of all previous stages of the project and the preservation of what needs to be preserved. Discussions center on drawing insights from plants and other life forms to inform human practices and a sustainable collective future. The tablecloth serves as a shared canvas, encouraging participants to jot down notes during the meal. These traces, along with the traces of the food consumed, form a non-linear collective narrative of words, drawings, and stains. After each meal, Dora and Anna carefully curate and embroider these traces onto the tablecloth. The laborious process of hand embroidery is a ritual of care that deepens the roots of the project. By embroidering the thoughts and visions written on the tablecloth, they are slowly transformed into statements and a kind of collective manifesto is formed.

About the creative talents

Dora Zoumpa is an interdisciplinary artist with a background in contemporary dance, art history, curation and ecopsychology. Her creative interests revolve around moving bodies, expanded choreographic approaches, interdisciplinary projects and exploring the artistic and collaborative aspects of interaction, exchange and learning arising from “human-nature” interaction. Her practices focus on participatory projects that invite communities and initiate a dialogue around the commons, ecology and the symbiotic relationships in the ecosystems in which we dwell. Artistically and research-wise, she engages with food and food politics, plants and cultivation, walking art, ceramics and embroidery techniques. Dora lives and works in urban and ‘natural’ environments and everything in between and is interested in traditional building techniques and regenerative socio-agricultural methods and practices. Dora loves to cook, collects fruits, herbs and seeds, prepares tinctures, jams and pickles, while also delving into sourdough and bread making.

Anna Housiada was born in Athens. Her work is process-based and takes the form of texts, installations and participatory events aimed at triggering historical, critical and political dialogue. She likes to view communities as ecosystems and explore the dynamics of the relationships emerging within them. Using methodological tools rooted in interdependence and the collective production of knowledge, her practice tackles questions of identity and the sense of belonging in a context of cultural multiplicity. She studied at the Athens School of Fine Art (2017) and holds a postgraduate degree from Sint-Lucas University of Antwerp (2020) Advanced Masters of Research in Art within Social-Political Context. For the last two years, she has been working at the intersection between art, pedagogy and activism, driven by a desire to help strengthen communal relations, challenge hegemonic narratives and empower individual and communities to affirm the right over their own stories. She has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2022) and selected as artist in residence in Delfina Foundation London (2024). Dora and Anna collaborate to explore the anthropological dimension of food through research and artistic practices and their focus lies in exploring how communal meals shape social and cultural connections.