Transhumant Cookery: Fermenting Territories
Carabanchel, Madrid
Fermentation is one of humanity’s oldest practices and, at the same time, one of the most radically contemporary. To ferment is to trust living matter to transform itself: to provide the conditions—the substrate, the temperature, the time—and to care for it.
Fermentando Territorios stands as a call for the right to produce one’s own living food, to know what one eats, to participate in the transformation of matter, and to reclaim whole foods as medicine in the Carabanchel neighborhood. Fermented and unpasteurized foods feed and nourish our microbiota—that community of microorganisms living within us, on which our health is increasingly known to depend. They also pre-digest food so that our bodies can absorb its nutrients.
C.A.L.A. Club Atlético Lxs Amores is a space dedicated to fermented beverages: kombucha, live vinegar, and sodas. MORFO Gallery is a space dedicated to mycelium as an agent of fermentation: tempeh, a superfood and extraordinary material that will be used to create an obelisk, with its biomass serving as the structure and the fabric and embroidery serving as analogies for the network that weaves and grows from the very core that unifies a society. By bringing fermentation, food sovereignty, and concepts such as son-mat (Korean for “taste of the hand”) into dialogue, Fermentando Territorios accompanies the migrant experience through the creation of one’s own food, imbuing it with the microflora in transit that lives in the hands of the community residing in Carabanchel.
Program of Events:
Session 01 — Shopping at Carabanchel’s markets and gardens with MORFO Gallery and C.A.L.A. Joint opening session
Date: August 15th
In-house Laboratory: a space for research and production where artists and curators carry out the fermentation process with the technical rigor it demands. The terroir begins here, with what the markets and gardens have to offer and with the hands that select it. At MORFO, the initial tempeh substrate is prepared. At C.A.L.A., the first kombucha mother culture is started.
Session 02 — Fermentation Workshop: Kombucha and Vinegars with C.A.L.A.
Session open to the community
Date and time: September 15th from 17:00 to 21:00 pm
Location: C.A.L.A. Club Atlético Lxs Amores
C/ Antonio Vicent 24
In this session, community members contribute their own microflora to the fermentations. Sofia leads an introduction to the world of kombucha and fermentation: what a SCOBY is, how the process works, and why fermentation is an act of self-sufficiency when it comes to food. Together, the group prepares a community batch of kombucha using ingredients purchased from local businesses. Each participant takes home a kombucha SCOBY to continue the process at home.
Session 03 — Sewing and Embroidery with Asesina Suárez
Session open to the community
Date and time: September 26th from 16:00 to 20:00 pm
Location: MORFO Gallery
C/ Esteban de Arteaga 3, Loc 4
Artist Asesina Suárez will teach attendees how to embroider and sew by hand. Together, they will create the textile formwork that will hold the tempeh mycelium biomass used to construct the final artwork.
Session 04 — Tempeh Biomass Workshop: How to Create Structures with Lisandro Illa
Session open to the community
Date and time: September 10th from 17:00 to 21:00 pm
Location: MORFO Gallery
C/ Esteban de Arteaga 3, Loc 4
Inoculation Day with the neighborhood and migrant collectives. Participants will learn how to prepare biomass for building structures. During the session, the fabric formwork created in the previous MORFO session with Asesina will be filled with the inoculated substrate so that the mycelium can grow, and everyone will work together to build the obelisk.
Session 05 — Bacterial Leather — Drying Scoobies and Bottling with Sofía Benetti
In-house session
Date: October 15th
Location: C.A.L.A. Club Atlético Lxs Amores
C/ Antonio Vicent 24
The mature scoobies are harvested, cleaned, and the drying process begins: the process by which the bacterial cellulose sheet is transformed into leather. Sofía determines the drying method based on the properties required for the final pieces: thickness, the tension applied during dehydration, and ambient temperature. Some scoobies have been dyed during growth with pigments from the process, and their leather will bear those colors. At the same time, the sodas and kombuchas are bottled.
Session 06 — Production of Artworks and Collective Installation with C.A.L.A. and MORFO Gallery
Internal Workshop
Design and production of the collective installation.
Session 07 — Tempeh Fermentation Workshop: Superfood. How to Make Tempeh for Consumption with Lisandro Illa.
Session open to the community
Date and time: November 14th from 17:00 to 20:00h
Location: hablarenarte Planta Baja
C/Antonio Vicent 28
Lisandro will teach participants how to cultivate tempeh as food using different edible substrates, and together they will prepare the raw material from which mini obelisks will be made. We will taste these together during the culinary event in the final session, which is open to the public.
Session 08 — The Culinary Happening — Pairing and Grand Opening with MORFO Gallery + C.A.L.A.
Final session, open to the community
Date and time: November 28 at 14:00 pm
Location: C.A.L.A. Club Atlético de Lxs Amores
C/ Antonio Vicent 24
The closing event of the process in Carabanchel is a pairing: an occasion where the fruits of months of fermentation and artistic work are served, sipped, and shared. Mini-obelisk-shaped tempeh “chorizos” are served as food. Soft drinks and kombucha are offered as beverages.
Artists:
Asesina Suárez. Textile artist, creative producer, art director, and curator with over 12 years of experience in these fields. Co-founder of MORFO Gallery, alongside Lisandro Illa.
Casiana Flores Pirán. Through painting and installation, she constructs a universe where fantasy and bucolic landscapes take center stage. Food, celebration, and characters such as insects and mythological creatures are some of the central themes of her work.
C.A.L.A. Club Atlético Lxs Amores was founded in 2023 in Madrid as an interdisciplinary space dedicated to artistic creation, education, and exhibition. Conceived as a meeting point for the visual, performing, and culinary arts, the Club seeks to create a space for exchange, experimentation, and community, where artistic practice engages with everyday life. C.A.L.A. is a community in the making: a network of artists, cultural managers, and audiences committed to cultural production.
Cala Zavaleta Goñi. Artist, actress, and cultural manager. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Dramatic Arts from the National University of the Arts (UNA) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In Madrid, she founded and directs C.A.L.A. (Club Atlético Lxs Amores) and PIONERA, an independent space for gathering, creation, and exhibition. She is also a co-creator of the Parda Objetos brand and the author of the artist’s book “Alicia Goñi,” published in collaboration with India Ediciones (Buenos Aires). Her practice spans the visual arts, theater, gastronomy, and cultural management, with a focus on producing profound and emotionally resonant art projects.
Lisandro Illa. Co-founder, along with Asesina Suárez, of MORFO Gallery—the world’s first art gallery to explore the intersection between visual art and culinary art, which serves as a platform for research and exhibition.
Sofía Benetti. Trained in Multimedia Arts at the National University of the Arts in Buenos Aires and self-taught in animation, 3D modeling, and processes related to the transformation of matter, Sofía Benetti’s practice spans languages and materialities, all driven by the same underlying question: What happens when something transforms, and what kind of knowledge does that transformation produce? Her research on ferments—koji, miso, vinegars, kombucha, and fermented beverages—and mycology as an artistic and communal practice places her at the intersection of science, gastronomy, and art.
This workshop is part of Cocinas Transhumantes, a project curated by hablarenarte · 2026, with support from the Ministry of Culture (Grants for Cultural Projects with Significant Social Impact).
