Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe are a duo of spatial practitioners. Working collaboratively under the name Cooking Sections, their practice examines the systems that organise the world through food. Using site-responsive installation, performance and video, they explore the overlapping boundaries between art, architecture, ecology and geopolitics. Established in London in 2013 they use food as a lens and tool to observe landscapes in transformation. They have worked on multiple iterations of the long-term site-responsive CLIMAVORE project, exploring how to eat as humans change climates, for which they were nominated for the Turner Prize in 2021.
CLIMAVORE is a platform that develops adaptive and holistic forms of eating that respond to the climate emergency across the world. It fosters collaboration with experts in ecology, marine biology, agronomy, nutrition, and engineering, as well as local farmers, fisherfolk, and schoolchildren. Working since 2015 on the Isle Skye and globally, the platform fosters community-led processes to promote alternative and regenerative food systems. CLIMAVORE is recognised as a facilitator exploring food and climate change and through grassroots work, including workshops, skills development programmes and ongoing collaborations with restaurants, businesses and stakeholders in the UK and globally.
Their work has been exhibited at Tate Britain; Serpentine Galleries; SALT Beyoğlu, Istanbul; 12th Taipei Biennial; 58th Venice Biennale; the U.S. Pavilion at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale; 13th Shanghai Biennial; 2019 Los Angeles Public Art Triennial; 2019 Sharjah Architecture Triennial and 13th Sharjah Biennial; Performa17; Manifesta12, Palermo; Lafayette Anticipations, Paris; Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery, Columbia University New York; Grand Union; Atlas Arts, Skye; Storefront for Art & Architecture New York; New Geographies; and HKW Berlin, among others. They have been residents at Headlands Center for the Arts, California; and The Politics of Food at Delfina Foundation, London. Upcoming solo exhibitions will take place at Bonniers Konsthall Stockholm, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, as well as a new commission for P.5 New Orleans Triennial and the Istanbul Art Biennial. They are part of British Art Show 9. They hold a research position and lead a studio unit at the Royal College of Art, London, and were guest professors at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich.
Their work has been recognised and celebrated widely with many accolades and awards including the Special Prize at the 2019 Future Generation Art Prize and finalists at the Visible Award for socially engaged practices. Daniel is the recipient of the 2020 Harvard GSD Wheelwright Prize for Being Shellfish.
