Transhumant Cookery: Fermenting Territories
Carabanchel, Madrid
Fermentando territorios is an artistic and community project that uses food fermentation as a way to reflect on migration. It is led by six Argentine migrant artists and curators through two venues in the Carabanchel neighborhood: Club Atlético Lxs Amores and MORFO Galería.
The initiative, in collaboration with Planta Baja, is part of Cocinas Transhumantes, a project curated by hablarenarte, which is being carried out in three other locations across Spain in collaboration with local stakeholders, artists, and like-minded organizations.
Over the course of four months, fermented beverages (kombucha, live vinegar, carbonated drinks) and tempeh are produced using ingredients sourced from the San Isidro market, local stores, the neighborhood’s community garden, and other locations in the area, through a process consisting of eight sessions that combines internal research sessions with workshops open to the neighborhood.
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.
The project draws on an analogy between fermentation and migration—both transformative processes that leave their mark—and treats the neighborhood as the source of the ingredients, knowledge, and bacterial footprint that set each fermentation process in motion. It is organized around two fundamental concepts: On the one hand, “terroir,” borrowed from the world of wine, which describes how the place of origin—its climate, soil, and microbiota—is imprinted on a product and makes it unique; applied to Carabanchel, the neighborhood functions as the project’s terroir, and each ferment made with its ingredients bears that mark. On the other hand, “son-mat”—a Korean concept used in the production of ferments that means “taste of the hand”—refers to the bacterial imprint that each person leaves on what they ferment with their own hands: the bacteria on their skin, their bodily history, and the place they inhabit.
Fermentation is also, in this project, a means of researching materials for artistic practice. Through each fermentation process, organic materials are sought out and tested: tempeh biomass, bacterial skins obtained from SCOBYs, and natural pigments extracted from the ferments themselves, all of which will be used for artistic purposes.
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 22nd from 17:00 to 21:00 pm
Location: C.A.L.A. Club Atlético Lxs Amores (C/ Antonio Vicent 24)
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-reliance when it comes to food. Together, we’ll prepare a community batch of kombucha using ingredients purchased from local businesses. Each participant will take 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: October 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)
Techniques for cultivating tempeh as a food, using various edible substrates that together form the raw material for the mini obelisks that will be sampled at the culinary event marking the end of the workshop.
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. Presentation of the site-specific installation resulting from the sessions.
Participants:
C.A.L.A. Club Atlético Lxs Amores was founded in 2023 in Madrid as an interdisciplinary space dedicated to artistic creation, training, and exhibition. Conceived as a meeting point between 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.The members of C.A.L.A. are: Cala Zavaleta Goñi, Maria Eugenia Amodio, Casiana Flores Pirán, and Sofía Benetti.
MORFO Gallery. Based in Madrid’s Carabanchel district, MORFO is the first gallery project to focus on the intersection of visual art and culinary arts. Co-directors Lisandro Mariano Illa and Asesina Suárez launched the project in 2024 to explore the intersection between these two practices. MORFO breaks down the boundaries separating these two disciplines, creating a space for research, promotion, and exhibition where cooking and food can serve as a theme, material, reference, concept, or even an excuse. MORFO Gallery is comprised of Asesina Suárez and Lisandro Illa.
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).
