Slow Disasters in the Lynedoch Valley: Narrative Report
- LOOKING FORWARD
- 4 days ago
- 1 min read
During Design Week South Africa (23–26 October), Food for Landscapes: Recipes for Slow Disasters unfolded in Cape Town as an exhibition and meeting point for thinking, tasting, and talking about how landscapes and people might heal. The project marks the first South African activation of a long-term, multi-continental project and methodology by British artist Andrew Merritt, which uses art, food, and ecological research to address “slow disasters”—a term coined by Merritt to describe the long-term destruction of landscapes and their bioculture.
The South African component is developed locally with wild food expert Loubie Rusch of the Local WILD Food Hub and the Sustainability Institute in the Lynedoch Valley. This geographical region, part of the Cape Floristic Region, is globally recognised as the smallest yet most biodiverse hotspot on the planet. Yet, due to centuries of colonial land use and development, it faces severe degradation, making it a critical site to examine the impact of historical injustices on ecology and community.
Over centuries, Indigenous and pastoralist communities have been displaced, biodiversity has been eroded, and the valley has been transformed by vineyards, infrastructure, and uneven patterns of land ownership. Through this lens, the project asks how historical processes of colonisation, agriculture, and labour have not only damaged ecosystems but also severed local communities from ancestral food knowledge and from the land itself.
