Municipal Kitchens : an exhibition re-imagining food as a public service in cities

hanna baumann, johann arens, miriam lowack, alicja rogalska & cherry truluck · pages 952–964 · published online 13 jul 2026

abstract

the exhibition municipal kitchens, held at ngbk berlin in 2024 and curated by the authors, explored the intersection of art, urbanism, and food justice. the show reimagined communal eating as a radical practice, transforming the gallery space—a former fast-food restaurant within a market hall—into a public kitchen. by bringing together international and local artists, collectives, and activists, municipal kitchens critically examined the injustices of current food systems and proposed new models for community-based eating. this article traces the exhibition’s curatorial approach, artistic interventions, community engagement strategies, and its broader implications for urban life and food justice. by emphasising the potential of kitchens and food as connectors in urban life, the article argues for collective eating as a tool for reimagining the future of urban public services.

Keywords:

curatorial urbanism infrastructures of care universal basic services food justice community kitchens arts-based methods

introduction

food is not generally seen as an urban problem—often quite the opposite, due to a focus on agricultural production and distribution chains. but the largely hidden systems required to feed cities—sourcing, distribution, sale, consumption and waste—shape urban form, power and inequality in fundamental ways. with massive rates of food price inflation (in the uk, these rose by close to 40% in the five years leading up to may 2026), extreme contrasts between conspicuous consumption and food poverty become even more apparent in cities across the world. yet cities are also where we see exciting new ideas for more just food futures being tested, from allotments where residents grow ‘non-native’, climate-resilient food crops, to bulk-buying co-ops at the neighbourhood level, and public infrastructures that enable cooking and eating communally.

defining the problem

the works we selected and commissioned for the show sought to both critically examine the injustices of current food systems and propose new models for community-based eating. several works in the programme showed how food shapes urban life, and laid bare the power dynamics embedded in the food system today:

a three-channel video entitled papitas tarpuycha—earthing potatoes, produced by gatari surya kusuma, åsa sonjasdotter and daniela zambrano amidón, follows the potato through different global traditions to show how a staple crop is entangled with histories of colonisation and migration.

elia nurvista contributed a batik textile suite entitled the route, which maps the colonial palm-oil trade and the linked story of dutch wax cloth across west africa, europe and indonesia, tying colonial histories to present-day trade and power.