The Suq Centeno case study aimed to explore agroecology in the context of the city of Córdoba and its network of agents. The research germinated from the project Suq Centeno by the artistic collective Plata Lugar, a project conceived as a meeting place enabling the crossing of knowledge around food, agroecology and the arts. The development of the case study stemmed from this situated context and has spanned across countries and practices throughout Organismo.

Based in the neighborhood of San Agustín, Suq Centeno is an investigation, an experiment and a proposal by Plata Lugar to build knowledge around how food distribution and consumption policies can influence urban transformation towards a healthier, more inclusive, and sustainable co-existence. To bring these ideas to life, Plata Lugar invited artistic collectives such as Future Farmers and Zuloark to activate workshops and experiments of convivial agro-community-building in the cultural space of Luciana Centeno, a school that had been unused since 2017, with the objective of revitalizing the neighborhood.

The approach adopted by Organismo is the expression of the diversity of profiles that constituted this case study group. Backgrounds in performative art, law studies, social design, regenerative agriculture, and material ecology have been the heterogeneous lenses through which we have engaged in conversation with this context.

The Suq Centeno case study was dedicated to enabling experimentation in socio-political science and reimagining food policies through fostering artistic research and social debate, as well as creating social connections with local communities. The research lines of this case study during the six months of the program were centered around the soil – food – seeds, which act as connectors of identity, memory, and legislation. Some of the guiding questions were: What is our relationship to soil? How can soil and food create a connection to the land? What will we be eating in the future? How can soil and seeds have a legal stake?

Research, on-site garden building, a field trip, interviews with farmers and seed savers, cooking and convivial dinners culminated with the development of an initiative named Seed Organismo, a call to action to create a cross-border community of people interested in seed libraries, speculating on them as a decentralized model of governance, empowerment of biodiversity and a system of exchange of ancestral agricultural knowledge. This call to action was initiated with an online platform and is also displayed as a performative act, which was first performed at Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid on June 13, 2024. The project aims to issue a call to action to cultural institutions to encourage actions that generate a commitment to local agroecological practices and promote alternative consumption patterns.