CONVIVIUM is a project aimed at reformulating common culinary heritage and traditions, undertaking shared activities and practices across regions, from gardening and growing plants to practices at the table and in the kitchen.
The project ‘CONVIVIUM: New European Bauhaus Solutions In Food, Living Heritage, And Convivality / New European Bauhaus Solutions In Food, Living Heritage, And Convivality’ has received funding of €3,700,000.00. The budget at the disposal of the University of Gdansk is €200,000 from Horizon Europe under the action New European Bauhaus – Innovative solutions for greener and fairer ways of living through art and culture, architecture and design for all.
“Obtaining funding for the project came as a surprise to the CONVIVIUM team. Out of 58 approved applications, only four were funded, a success rate of around 6.9%. Given that in Europe, as in the rest of the world, culinary heritage has contributed to the demarcation of boundaries between regions and traditions, as part of the project activities we propose to revisit (re-imagine) what is top-down and boundary-creating. At the same time, our aim is to reformulate common culinary heritage and traditions, to undertake joint activities in different regions, from gardening and plant cultivation to new practices in the kitchen and at the table,” says Project Manager Irena Chawrilska, PhD.
The culinary landscapes of the places where the project activities will take place – Coimbra, Lofoten, Basque Country, Flanders, Rotterdam and Gdansk – face challenges, but also enjoy an extremely rich tradition that needs to be mapped in order to discover the positive transformative potential of the culinary landscape in the face of the challenges of the modern world.
“CONVIVIUM builds on the culinary heritage of individual communities to show how artistic interventions, joint activities in selected communities can contribute to the creation of more inclusive communities aware of their heritage and the richness of the region, who draw on their own and others’ experiences to create new shared cultural narratives,” adds Irena Chawrilska, PhD.
The project will run for 36 months, in a consortium of 14 partners from, among others, Portugal, France, Spain, Norway, the Netherlands. The project leader is the University of Coimbra, with the University of Gdansk acting as partner.
At the University of Gdańsk, the project is supported by the Centre for Sustainable Development, and its manager is Irena Chawrilska, PhD. Other persons involved in the project from the UG side are: Magdalena Bielenia-Grajewska, PhD, DSc, Professor UG, Jolanta Mrozek-Kwiatkowska.