Gröna Linjens Odlingssafari 1
15 Juni 2014
This was the first Safari arranged by the Gröna Linjen project. The program this day was planned by Anna Maria Orru, part of the team. By bike we were visiting five different urbangardens; Folkodlarna in Matparken, Bagisodlarna and their new Forestgarden, Trädgård på spåret at Skanstull, Högalidsodlarna on the roof at Hornstull and finally ended up at Mälarpiraterna.During the tour each garden were introduced by gardeners at each site. The day also included; Anna Maria Orru introducing her app Co-mapping as a part of her PHD research. Artintervention "Can plants be political" by Malin Lobell at Högalidsodlarna. Andrea Hvistendahls foodperformance "No waste cooking" and Ulrika Jansson and Malin Lobell finished the day off with a mini-lecture with example of art meeting, food, farming and gardening at Mälarpiraternas trädgård.
Gröna Linjen description
- CONNECTING: Gröna linjen intends to weave together the different urban farming initiatives along the #17 metro line in a cohesive manner.
- CONNECT THE MOVEMENT: to demonstrate and highlight the urban gardening movement, both to the public, to the city and to show the gardens that they have other gardening 'friends' in their vicinity
- 'A PLACE ON THE MAP': to map out the different initiatives (existing and potential), and let the gardens know they significantly have 'a place on the map'.
- URBAN PLATFORM: Create an urban platform for discussion on the challenges of growing food in the city. Also a platform that can be a neutral space for city inhabitant, gardeners and city officials/professionals to discuss the topic around urban gardening
- ARTIST INTERACTION: Create a space for artists to be engaged in the urban farming movement
The Gröna Linjen Project is a vibrant transdisciplinary platform of artists, architects, gardeners, geographers and more. The team is made of several cross-disciplines who wish to investigate the subject of urban food in creative and engaging manners whilst simultaneously creating a practice-based platform specifically themed around the topic from different food perspectives; production, consumption, trade and distribution. We want to highlight the city's cultural diversity, its barriers, and the opportunities provided with the role towards sustainable urban development in Stockholm by linking art, science, practice and research into these issues.
A variety of events will be organized in what will be an 'Odling Safari' through Stockholm, along and near the subway line/stations on T-bana #17. In the tradition of a safari, citizens and city will be invited to an overland green expedition of their neighbourhoods to unearth the green pearls that exist, and the potential acupuncture points in cities that could revive and re-energize both community involvement, in-between open urban spaces (especially around housing), and increase biodiversity within the city as a result.
The series of happenings will include invited guests; gardeners, architects, eco-chefs, beekeepers, street artists, dancers, food artists etc. Aim is to give participants a 'safari' experience of urban farming from different perspectives such as information about how to start farming yourself, hands-on practice, art experiences, knowledge of the need for urban farming from a sustainability and social perspective, tasting of food and getting people engaged in their local surroundings and see potential sites for farming.
The Gröna Linjen group: Ulrika Flodin FuråsGatsmart.eu, Mattias Gustafssonurbio.se, Ulrika Jansson, Malin Lobell, Anna Maria Orruannamariaorru.com and Christina Schaffer.
Anna Maria Orrus research paper: Extracting Urban Food Potential: design-based methods for digital and bodily cartography. Publisched in Future of food Journal. Vol. 3 N.1 (2015) Special Issue: Finding Spaces for Productive Cities.