Grace Gloria Denis
Artist in Residence, Umeå, 1 April – 30 June 2024
Born 1990 in Los Angeles. Grace Gloria Denis’ work converges agricultural research with interactive installation, braiding together edible matter and sound to propose a convivial and comestible approach to critical inquiry. Implementing the meal as both a medium and a pedagogical tool, her work refers to participatory action research models, engaging in collaborations with actors in local food systems utilizing agroecological techniques. Her work considers the quotidien interaction with the esculent realm as a poetic tool of transmission, inviting a reframing of sensorial relations to consumption practices.
Grace Gloria Denis. Photo: Maddy Rotman.
Within the context of the IASPIS residency, Grace will conduct research upon the food preservation techniques that permeate the culinary histories of the territory, encompassing techniques such as curing, salting, smoking, and fermenting. In conjunction, she will examine the imperativity of fermented lactose in traditional peasant diets, investigating the nuanced narratives encountered in contemporary food cultures which reveal historical challenges with agricultural production.
Grace received her BFA from Cal Arts and her MFA from TRANS— at HEAD Genève, with a focus on critical pedagogy. Her post-graduate studies include ETH Zurich’s World Food Systems Center and agroecology and biointensive agriculture at Las Cañadas. She has taught and developed non-profit arts education programs for various institutions and recently published the book In, From, and With: Exploring Collaborative Survival. She is currently developing and teaching an eco-pedagogy program in partnership with HEAD Genève as well as the curating the exhibition Cum Panis: Bread and its Ecologies at Le 19 Crac in Montbéliard, France.