Wietske Harmanna Maas

My background is a miscellany of different tangents: working as a painter, a museum ornithology preparator (taxidermist), a sommelier and radio-making. Based in Amsterdam since 2005, 5've been working with the European Cultural Foundation’s arts programme.
In the last few years I've been getting my hands dirty again as an artist, exploring gastronomic possibilities in the ecological and cultural fabrics of the city. My practice of gathering and hunting the urban space: urbanibalism, is about transforming unsuspecting urban ingredients into something edible. The process of tracking and turning proposed ingredients into a recipe involves a changing community — from brewers, butchers to birdwatchers — and often culminates in a social dinner or public performance. Milk champagne, railway poppy confit to schiphol goose roast, urbanibalism and its process of collection, preparation and (public) consumption raises questions about the future of food economy as well as new aesthetic engagements for life in the metropolis.