Author: lisbonconsortium

The Seed Archive, conceived by Mónica de Miranda as part of the broader Institution(ing)s project, is a living archive dedicated to preserving, celebrating, and sharing the agricultural knowledge, food practices, and cultural memory of African and Afro-descendant communities. Rooted in urban gardens, ancestral knowledge systems, and diasporic resilience, the Seed Archive connects seeds not only to cultivation but also to histories of migration, identity, and collective care.

As part of this initiative, we are creating an online cookbook that gathers recipes from across the African diaspora, tracing the journeys of seeds through generations, geographies, and kitchens.

We invite individuals, families, cooks, storytellers, and communities to contribute recipes that use at least one seed, fruit, vegetable, or plant from the Seed Archive.

Editors: Alyse Kaweng Fan; Anika Borko; Roxana-Andreea David (PhD and MA students of Culture Studies / The Lisbon Consortium)

Editorial coordination: Luísa Santos

Eligible Seed Archive ingredients include:
banana, broad bean, tomato, lemon, chayote, common bean, corn, green bean, loquat, mint, okra, orange, pine tree, piri-piri, chili pepper, pumpkin, sugar cane, sweet potato

Submission Guidelines:
Each recipe submission must include:

• Recipe title
• List of ingredients
• Step-by-step cooking method, including preparation techniques and any traditional methods used
• The name of the person who shared the recipe with you, or where you found it
• The seed from the Seed Archive to which the recipe relates
• The original location/geography of the recipe (for example: Cabo Verde, Angola, Mozambique, Brazil, São Tomé and Príncipe, Guinea-Bissau, or other diasporic geographies)
• Optional personal story, memory, or cultural significance connected to the recipe (up to 150 words)
• Optional traditional serving style, including serving vessels, cultural contexts, or any dining customs associated with the recipe
• Optional photos of the dish or the ingredients in home garden, or family photos relating to the dish (up to 3 JPGs, 150 dpi each)
• Name of the author(s) of the submission
• A little bit about you or your collective (maximum 200 words)
• The following contact details: your name(s), where you are based, and an email address

Criteria:

• Recipes must use at least one ingredient from the Seed Archive.
• Recipes should reflect culinary traditions, adaptations, or memories from African and Afro-descendant communities.
• Both traditional and contemporary interpretations are welcome.

Why Participate?
This cookbook aims to preserve and amplify the food knowledge embedded in diasporic communities, highlighting how seeds carry histories of survival, adaptation, and cultural continuity. Your contribution will become part of a collective archive of taste, memory, and resistance.

Through food, we map migrations, honor ancestral knowledge, and cultivate new futures. Join us in growing this living archive.

Submission process and acknowledging the contributors:
We allow for up to 3 submissions per person or collective to the open call.

All contributors will be fully credited next to the submitted recipe and in the list of contributors.

Please indicate the following information for credits:

• Who is the author(s) of the submission
• A little bit about you or your collective (maximum 200 words)
• The following contact details: your name(s), where you are based, and an email address

Please send your submissions to: info@institutionings.eu and cookbookseedarchive@gmail.com

The submissions don’t include any fee.

Key dates and selection process:
Launch of the Open Call: 1 June 2026

Deadline for submission: until October 2026

We will include all recipes submitted as long as they follow the criteria (listed under “criteria”) and include all required information (listed under “submission guidelines”).

Mónica de Miranda is a visual artist, filmmaker, and researcher known for her interdisciplinary approach. Her work explores the intersections of politics, gender, memory, space, and history, employing drawing, installation, photography, film, and sound. Blurring the boundaries between documentary and fiction, she investigates strategies of resistance, geographies of affection, storytelling, and ecologies of care. Mónica represented the Portugal Pavilion at the 2024 60th Venice Biennale, with the project Greenhouse.

Her art has been showcased at renowned international events, including the 16th Sharjah Biennial, the Lubumbashi Biennale, Berlin Biennale, Dakar Biennial, Casablanca Biennale, Bamako Encounters, Venice Architecture Biennale, BIENALSUR, and Houston FotoFest. Notable exhibitions have taken place at esteemed venues such as CAIXA Cultural, Bildmuseet,  Kadist Art Foundation, Gulbenkian, MUCEM; AfricaMusem, MAAT, Barbican, Autograph, MNAC, and the Camões Cultural Institute. Monica’s work features in public and private collections worldwide.

website

Photo credit @ Mónica Miranda

The roundtable discussion Fábrica of Lived Art Practices: A roundtable on art, institutions and alternative economic models, will take place on 18 June 2026 19:00 at Fábrica Braço de Prata. The event is organized by Hajer Khader, Sarah Zammit Munro, and Christian Debono (MA and PhD students of LXC), in the framework of the Artivism Seminar and the economic lab of Institution(ing)s.

Traditional art spaces provide stability and visibility, but also constraints. With reduced budgets, artistic freedom, and institutional independence risk of compromise to secure financial support. How do spaces and collectives practice hybrid funding? What do alternative models look like? Why are they essential for the future of arts and culture?

Join us on 18 June 2026 at 19:00 at Fábrica Braço de Prata for a roundtable discussion on alternative funding models for art institutions and their role in shaping the future of the cultural sector. Chaired by Hajer Khader, the discussion will bring together Luha Vieira, Chin-chin Yap, Carlos Valerio Kangoma (Lucy), and Ed Dingli, who will share their experiences and perspectives on the challenges and opportunities involved in rethinking the structures of art institutions. A Q&A session will follow, along with informal networking and refreshments.

Luha Vieira is a central figure in the management and curation of Fábrica Braço de Prata, a vibrant cultural space in Lisbon housed in a former industrial building. Under her influence, the venue stands out as a hub for culture, shows, exhibitions, literature, and events, functioning as a “museum of living arts.”

Chin-chin Yap is a Singaporean writer and contemporary art specialist working at the intersection of art, law and human rights. She previously ran the Chinese contemporary art division of the London and NYC-based auction house Phillips de Pury & Company. Since 2007, she has been a contributing editor for the Hong Kong-based magazine Art Asia Pacific, where she writes about contemporary art in relation to geopolitics, law and emerging markets.

Carlos Valerio Kangoma, aka “Lucy”, is an Angolan musician from Huambo who immigrated to Portugal at the age of 3. His lived experience of urban violence developed a social awareness that he directed towards his art and the need to challenge the limitations ingrained in the mentality of people living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Since 2021, his focus has been on music, activism, and the fight against racism while participating in the coordination of Vida Justa collective.

Ed Dingli is an illustrator and designer whose work is driven by socio-political, cultural, and environmental subjects. He feels driven to respond to worldly injustices with vibrant visuals that aim to connect with, support or inspire viewers. His style is continually developing as he is actively experimenting with form and technique, using different methods of printmaking and exploring both analogue and digital processes.

Fábrica Braço de Prata
Rua da Fábrica do Material de Guerra, 1 – Marvila
1950-128 Lisboa, Portugal

The next session of The Lisbon Consortium Book Club will take place on 22 June 2026 11:00 – 13:00 at Hangar. It takes place in the framework of the online seed archive and the community garden, by Mónica de Miranda.

Inspired by Mónica de Miranda’s Community Garden and Jemma Foster’s Ecomancy, we are hosting The Earthly In-Common: An Ecopoetic Tea Circle. We’ll be gathering to share herbal infusions and recite poetry that explores our deep-rooted relation to the more-than-human world.

We will read from the Attached to the Living World anthology, alongside the ecopoetry of Anuj Lugun and Nirmala Putul (all texts will be provided).

Our discussion will be guided by excerpts from Achille Mbembe’s The Earthly Community and Édouard Glissant’s Poetics of Relation.

We welcome you to bring your own favourite ecopoetry to share with the group.

By connecting the material act of drinking tea with the immaterial power of language, we aim to explore what it means to be “in-common” with the Earth today.

• Capacity: limited to 12 participants

*eco note: to avoid disposable waste, we kindly ask that you bring your own mug or tea cup.

• Deadline for registration:  16 June for last registration, 1st come 1 served on the event day

• Email address for registration: lisbonconsortiumbookclub@gmail.com

You can find and download the reading materials here.

For more information, please visit The Lisbon Consortium website.

This activity is organised by Alyse Kaweng Fan, Anika Borko, Roxana-Andreea David, and Teresa Weinholtz as part of the Seminar in Artivism and The Lisbon Consortium Book Club. It is developed within the framework of the online seed archive and community garden project by Mónica de Miranda.