Food of War is a collective founded by Hernan Barros & Omar Castaneda in 2010. We will use the funding to further develop and present The Gastroessay, an immersive, narrative-led visual arts experience created by the Food of War. This innovative project combines sculptural installation, performance, sound and video with a five-course edible journey. Food becomes both medium and message, inviting audiences to explore urgent themes of conflict, culture and ecological ethics.
Building on our 2024 pilot, the next phase of The Gastroessay will deepen our engagement with sustainability by exploring how thoughtful approaches to food can support biodiversity and ecological durability in Darlington. Rather than promoting restrictive dietary models, the experience encourages critical reflection on farming, cooking, and consumption through the lens of contemporary art. We also aim to explore the full potential of immersive practice by engaging all five senses to create a holistic and transformative encounter with the themes presented.
The Gastroessay offers a space for reflecting on sustainability, food waste, ecological awareness and community durability, all of which are embedded in Darlington’s evolving identity. By drawing on the town’s legacy of self-sufficiency, its environmental efforts and strong ties to local food production, the project builds a meaningful connection between past and present. Through the use of locally sourced, seasonal and foraged ingredients and by revisiting traditions such as wartime growing campaigns, the experience invites audiences to consider how food can be a vehicle for cultural memory and future sustainability. It also explores how the town has responded to food-related conflicts and crises, from WWII to contemporary climate challenges.
The bursary will be used to design and produce new edible installations and immersive environments inspired by Darlington’s landscape, to refine the performative elements of the experience, to expand participatory components that involve sourcing and preparing plant-based food, and to document and promote the project in order to establish a sustainable model for future presentations across the U.K.
This award will be a key in advancing our collective practice, agenda and realising The Gastroessay as a pioneering, socially engaged art form that fosters dialogue, empathy, and meaningful connection.
Our proposed project, the Gastroessay, is a new interdisciplinary format/concept that integrates food with artistic expression to explore and communicate complex cultural narratives. This concept was piloted only in London in 2024, we would find a powerful new voice in Darlington by using the town itself as subject and stage. The Gastroessay will elevate the profile of Darlington in the creative arts by offering an experience that is both sensorial and intellectual, engaging audiences in a unique dialogue between history, place and palate.
Through curated edible courses, we will explore Darlington’s key role in shaping the UK such as the revolutionary connectivity enabled by the railway, the symbolic power of community gardens during the world wars, and the town’s current efforts to reduce food waste as part of a sustainable future. Each dish will function as both a story and a sculptural form, speaking its own language through taste, texture and composition, and inviting reflection on Darlington’s layered legacy.
By placing Darlington at the heart of a bold, experiential art form, this project aims to spark conversation, attract attention from wider creative networks and inspire local engagement through a format that is accessible, thought-provoking and deeply rooted in place.
Food of War is a UK based multidisciplinary art collective exploring the intersection of food, conflict and socio-political issues through diverse artistic media. Founded in December 2010 by visual artist Omar Castañeda and filmmaker Hernán Barros, the collective unites practitioners from varied disciplines to examine how food functions as a potent medium for storytelling, resistance and cultural identity.
The collective’s practice merges visual arts with gastro-experiences, interactive installations, and documentary storytelling to interrogate themes such as migration, food politics, resilience and environmental crisis. Collaborating with chefs, scientists, historians and activists, Food of War crafts layered narratives that reveal how food traditions are shaped by historical trauma, political struggle and ecological shifts. Digital technologies such as projection mapping and exploring augmented reality expand the sensory and conceptual dimensions of their work, enabling audiences to engage with food narratives in new and immersive ways.
Recent exhibitions include Sustainable Feasts in London, which blended performance and sonic landscapes to explore the connections between food, ecology and cultural ritual and Journey of Labels at the Venice Biennale, which used QR-coded posters across the city to present a video portrait of African gondoliers navigating the contradictions of labour and identity in Venice. The Forbidden Journey, an exhibition held at the Saatchi Gallery in London in 2022, presented a retrospective of twelve years of projects and experiences exploring the relationship between food and conflict.
The latest exhibition Battlefield Bodies (2025) at Hypha Studios in London l combined videomapping, food, and digital media to explore the relationship between body image, mental health and food culture. These projects reflect Food of War’s ongoing commitment to research-led, collaborative practice that bridges traditional craft, contemporary media, and urgent social inquiry.
Through exhibitions, community workshops and public programmes, Food of War continues to create dialogue and reflection on power structures, environmental concerns, and cultural transformation. Their work invites audiences to reconsider the role of food not only as nourishment but as a vessel for memory, resistance and collective experience. If we are what we eat, then we all carry the taste of conflict — we are all Food of War.
Yes, both founders of Food of War hold degrees in visual and applied arts at undergraduate and postgraduate level.
Omar Castañeda, a British Colombian visual artist based in London, holds a BA in Fine Art from the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá (1998–2005) and an MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins, London (2009–2011). His multidisciplinary practice explores themes of food, conflict and cultural identity. He has furthered his education through additional training in photography at Camberwell College of Arts and video at the University of Westminster. His practical skills are also enhanced by specialist courses in glass blowing and taxidermy, undertaken in Bogotá and Zacatecas respectively.
Hernán Barros, a British Colombian filmmaker and visual artist, holds a degree in Film and Television from the National University of Colombia and a BA in Digital Media from the University of Westminster, London. He has also completed professional certificates in Compositing at Escape Studios (2010) and Virtual Production at the National Film and Television School (NFTS) in the UK (2023).
Together, their academic and practical experience underpins Food of War’s collaborative, research-led and socially engaged artistic practice.
Yes, Food of War has received several professional grants in support of our artistic practice, particularly for socially engaged and interdisciplinary projects.
In 2025, Food of War was recently awarded support from the British Council to create a food installation for the Futuro Coca Festival.
In 2024–2025, we were awarded a grant from Hypha Studios to support our exhibition Battlefield Bodies, providing both funding and exhibition space. This project explores the intersections of food culture, body image, and mental health through immersive media.
In 2023, we received two separate grants from the Arts Connection Foundation under their programme supporting pioneering collectives. The first, for The Forbidden Fruit: Object of Desire, supported the development of new work exploring cultural symbolism, consumption, and taboo. The second, for Uitmelken: Harvesting Money, allowed us to further our research into the relationship between food production and economic systems, with a particular focus on dairy farming and capitalism in Amsterdam.
Between 2020 and 2021, we were awarded a grant by Proposition Studios for Terra Nexus, a multidisciplinary project linking ecological collapse, resource conflict and food futures. The funding enabled the production of a site-specific installation and collaborative research with scientists and environmentalists.
Yes, we are actively involved in organising self-created professional opportunities through our collective, Food of War. Co-founded in 2010, it is a self-led, multidisciplinary art platform based in the UK. As artists, we take full responsibility for conceiving, producing and curating our own exhibitions, installations and performances both independently and in collaboration with institutions.
We also manage our own studio network and collaborate across disciplines with chefs, scientists, historians and curators. Our collective functions as both a curatorial and artistic platform, offering opportunities to other artists while maintaining an independent voice. This self-directed model is central to our practice, enabling us to explore urgent socio-political themes through collaborative and autonomous art-making.
Yes, Food of War has recently been commissioned with the support of a public institution. In 2025, we were awarded a grant by the British Council to create a site-specific food installation for the Futuro Coca Festival.
Yes, Food of War’s work has been featured and reviewed across several platforms, including international art galleries, cultural blogs, and online publications.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_of_War
In 2022, our exhibition The Forbidden Journey at the Saatchi Gallery in London.The exhibition marked a significant retrospective of over a decade of our collective practice exploring the intersection of food, conflict, and cultural identity.
Saatchi Gallery – Food of War
http://thisistomorrow.info/articles/food-of-war-the-forbidden-journey
In 2023, our work was also featured by the Amsterdam International Residency for Writers and Graphic Designers (AIRWG), which published a detailed review of our practice and recent projects. The article recognised the way our interdisciplinary work blurs the boundaries between documentary, gastronomy, and contemporary art, and acknowledged our growing relevance in international discourse on ecological and political art.
Read the feature on AIRWG
Yes, Food of War has taken part in several recognised artist residency and placement programmes, which have significantly contributed to the development of our practice.
We are currently undertaking an artist residency at the Museo La Neomudéjar ( Karstika) in Madrid, Spain. This residency supports the creation of new work and is hosted by one of the leading centres for experimental and socially engaged art in Spain.
In 2023, we also participated in a residency with the Amsterdam International Residency (AIRWG). This opportunity allowed us to conduct in-depth research into the food industry.
Additionally, as part of our upcoming commission supported by the British Council, we will take part in a two-week residency linked to the Futuro Coca Festival in Santa Marta, Colombia. This placement will allow us to engage directly with local communities in the production of a site-specific food installation focused on ancestral knowledge, healing, and decolonial memory.
Email: info@foodofwar.org
Address: 50 howitt road, flat 1, london, UK, nw3 4lj, GB
Local Authority: London Borough of Camden
