SMAAKSTAAT (State of Taste) is a comprehensive concept focused on cultural change, creating a new, living culture of taste. It is a critique of the current ‘state’ of our food culture. By linking to cultural institutions, the programme raises questions of what we value in society and what constitutes culture.
Our current food system is stuck in a chicken and egg situation, where production and consumption of cheap food only encourages more supply of and demand for cheap food from large scale farms. The negative externalities of these large-scale farming processes (the destruction of our environment, loss of bio-, economic and food diversity and, ultimately, loss of taste) but also the positive externalities of small-scale farming, are not accounted for. Moreover, due to uniform regulations and laws regardless of the scale or environmental impact of the farms, alternative, more specialist farmers are not able to meet the growing demand from consumers and face unattractive business prospects.
SMAAKSTAAT intervenes in this situation, aiming to increase the value that society places on taste, and therefore on food and the farmer, by supporting small-scale, specialist farmers with special breeds/species (of meat or fruit/vegetables) or products (such as raw milk cheese).
The programme links specific territories in the countryside with cultural institutions and their visitors in cities. In these cultural institutions, provocative installations and ‘dinner discussions’ are held, bringing together diverse stakeholders to discuss the food system. The territories, named ‘SMAAKHAVENS’, get a special status with regards to regulations and form a network across the country. The farm is transformed in to a publicly accessible terrain, making the processes of production visible, as well as closing resource cycles. Consumers can more directly engage in processes of production on the farm itself and by becoming investors in the business. Every SMAAKHAVEN has a SMAAKMEESTER (Taste Master) and SMAAKLEERLING (Taste Apprentice), to support a good exchange of knowledge and enable young farmers to gradually take over and continue the farm.
SMAAKSTAAT challenges the status quo, creating a new ‘State of Taste’ with greater diversity in our landscape and on our plate.
SMAAKSTAAT is our winning entry to the competition ‘
Brood en Spelen’, initiated by Floris Alkemade (Rijksbouwmeester) and Berno Strootman (Rijksadviseur voor het Landschap). It was developed in collaboration with
Bennie Meek, Vincent Wittenberg, farmer Geert van der Kaa of
vof De Walnoothoeve(n) and curator Valentijn Byvanck from the
Marres Museum, Maastricht.
Collaborators
Bennie Meek, Vincent Wittenberg, Geert van der Kaa (De Walnoothoeve(n)), Valentijn Byvanck (Marres Museum, Maastricht), Joris Bijdendijk (RIJKS restaurant)
