Salten Dykes

The lunch delves into how we might nourish ourselves of salinised environments. The menu integrates halophytes - plants that grow on salty, tidal soil - to explore the ecological and cultural potential of Elbe’s future agricultural landscapes. As the salinisation of croplands increases with higher sea levels, cultivating salt-tolerant plants shifts the narrative from resisting to embracing the tides. This approach challenges the fertile-infertile dualism that has governed modern industrial agriculture, grounding adaptation in intergenerational repair. Staging a deep history of amphibious soils in the Elbe’s estuary, Salten Dykes offers a way to assimilate - chemically and culturally - the life-worlds halophytes carry, recuperating those that were, those that exist, and those we need to bring into being.

The Tidal Garden is a Venice-based research agency founded in 2020 that explores the edible potential of halophytes - salt-tolerant plants - as a tool for cultural adaptation to climate change. Led by Filippo Grassi (environmental scientist), Lodovica Guarnieri (designer/researcher) and Lorenzo Barbasetti di Prun (chef/artist), in collaboration with a network of farmers and gastronomic professionals, the project focuses on establishing the cultivation of new crops and developing novel culinary habits from salinised agricultural fields.

Lodovica Guarnieri is the curator of cultural programming at The Tidal Garden. Venetian researcher, designer and curator, her work draws upon the entanglements between ecology and modern infrastructures. Her practice grapples with technoscience as it relates to extractivism, chemical exposure, colonialism, and their toxic afterlives in water ecologies. With a background in critical spatial practices and social design, Lodovica has gained eight years experience in curating performances, publications, pedagogical projects, public programmes and networks. These initiatives actively engage with local communities to uncover new material imaginaries for social and ecological justice.

Lorenzo Barbasetti di Prun is head of gastronomic r&d at The Tidal Garden. Lagoon-based chef with a background in eco-social design. He’s the initiator of Prometheus_open food lab, an initiative that works at the intersection of art, design, science and food production as means for exploring remote landscapes, restoring human ecological responsibility and fostering communities’ resilience. Testing his practice in different social and cultural environments, he developed good abilities in building tight, multidisciplinary, international networks. He works with Dolomiti Contemporanee, one of the most effective regenerative programmes in Italy.