Deconstructed design and food culture… But is it art?

by Louise Burgers.  Design Indaba this year celebrates 25 years of influencing sustainable design and creativity in South Africa and Africa. This is what we can expect from the three-day inspiration smorgasbord which opens today, 26 February and runs at the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town until 28 February, with the conference each day and art, film, music and activations each night.

In the past 25 years, over 600 speakers, the majority from across the world outside of South Africa, have taken to the stage with challenging, inspiring, often heartfelt and provocative talks and performances to stir your soul and inspire critical thinking.

Every artist and designer, creative collaborator, architect, fashionista and muso has spoken about or demonstrated their purpose-driven work, seeding over 200 impact-driven projects into the public square.

Here’s a sample of some of the highlights of the coming three days for this industry:

• Critical food designer Alexandra Genis has come up with a natural flavouring that reduces energy and uses chemistry and 3-D printing to make flavour molecules, using far fewer natural ingredients to create the flavours she wants.
• Debbie Millman, artist, author and Design Matters podcaster, is one of the most influential designers in the United States.
• Honey and Bunny Productions is the brand of two ironic and fearless provocateurs, Martin Hablesreiter and Sonja Stummerer – architects turned food designers – who deconstruct food in their quest on the aesthetics of eating; developing and curating ‘eat art’ performances.
• Natsai Audrey Chieza, Zimbabwean-founder and director of Faber Futures, an award-winning multidisciplinary design agency. The agency “equips biotechnology start-ups, multi-sector brands and institutions with the frameworks and tools to adapt to holistic systems for regenerative futures”.
• Ghanaian chef Selassie Atadika on her culinary journey to launch her food enterprise Midunu, which brings food, culture and community together though its “nomadic and private dining experiences”, focusing on her New African Cuisine movement.

Louise Burgers (previously Marsland) is the Publisher and Editor and Co-Founder of RetailingAfrica.com. She has spent over 20 years writing about the FMCG retailing, marketing, media and advertising industry in South Africa and on the African continent. She has specialised in local and Africa consumer trends and is a passionate Afro-optimist who believes it is Africa’s time to rise again and that the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) will be a global gamechanger in the next decade.

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