In The Azolla Cooking and Cultivation Project artists, researchers, farmers, gardeners, chefs and scientists experiment with cooking and cultivating the water fern Azolla. Azolla is one of the world's fastest growing plants and a rich source of nutrients. Yet it is virtually unexplored as a foodstuff for human consumption.

A book about the project can be found here. Here is an interview about the project at We Make Money Not Art, an article from the magazine FARM: FARM.pdf, a post at Treehugger, a post at The Kitchn, and a talk at Wysing Arts Centre. A great introduction to Azolla can be found in Biodiversity: Journal of life on Earth. Some Azolla-research that has been used in the project is available here.




The Azolla Cooking and Cultivation Project has been shown at Kalmar Konstmuseum (SE) in April / May 2010, at Kultivator (SE) in June / July 2010, at Färgfabriken (SE) in July / August 2010, at Stockholm Culture Festival (SE) in August 2010, at KIM? Contemporary Art Centre (LV) in April/May 2011, at Rogaland Kunstsenter (NO) in May / June 2011, at Salo Art Museum (FI) in September/October 2011 and at Wysing Arts Centre (UK) in October 2011. It was shortlisted finalist for the french Prix Coal 2011 prize.

The Azolla Cooking and Cultivation Project has been realized by Erik Sjödin with the help of John Larsson at The Department of Botany at Stockholm University (SE), Masamichi Yamashita at The Space Agriculture Task Force at JAXA (JP), the art and agriculture collective Kultivator on Öland (SE), the contemporary art and architecture space Färgfabriken and their café in Stockholm (SE), Hästa gård in Stockholm (SE), RIXC and KIM? Contemporary Art Centre in Riga (LV), Rogaland Kunstsenter, Ullandhaug økologiske gård and The Norwegian Gastronomical Institute in Stavanger (NO), Halikonlahti Green Art and the garderner Tiia Paju in Salo (FI), Grizedale Arts and Wysing Arts Centre in the UK.