Welcome FOOD OF WAR to airWG!

The FOOD OF WAR collective was formed by Omar Castañeda and Hernán Barros, two Colombian artists based in London and Andreina Fuentes, a Venezuelan artist based in Miami, as a guest artist.

FOOD OF WAR is a multidisciplinary art collective dedicated to explore the relationship between food and conflict through any artistic expression.

Their proposals involve performative interactions with the public, involving food, bringing reflections on the issues we face in relation to our alimentation, its production, distribution, local and global, among other issues that they explore from their artistic practice.

As they express it in their manifesto:

" Food of war is a project in development. It's built around the idea of coexistence through sharing food and sharing tables.

Food of war is all about abundance and generosity, so it won't run out.

If not religion or politics... at least rice, potatoes, pizzas, meat, corn and so on are what human beings unanimously share.

Food of War is a movement whose main goal is to group and display works of art that show the connection between war and food.

Food of War is a movement whose main goal is to bring together and exhibit artworks that show the connection between war and food.

Any medium is accepted, as long as it explores the aforementioned connection".

Meet our current residents, Polina Doroshenko & Stefaniia Dobrianska. They will work in the airWG studio till the end of June 2023. 

Polina lived in Kyiv prior to the war, working as a book illustrator and graphic arts teacher. In March 2022, Polina with her four-year-old daughter Stefaniia had to flee their home and made their way to Barcelona, where they found temporary shelter with friends.

During her airWG residency Polina intends to create a zine based on drawings from her sketchbooks which she began after they left Ukraine. Polina considers the graphic diary as a first-hand format to visualise her thoughts, ideas and anxieties. She says: “I did fast and naive sketches about our everyday life abroad and when I focused on a moment, my anxiety felt less. This diary is my creative tool of struggle. Stefaniia told me that she was inspired, and that she likes to have her own corner to organise an exhibition for young visitors."

Polina graduated from NAOMA, the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture, Department of Graphic Arts with a Master’s degree. She has been a tutor in graphic design at NAOMA since 2019. Over the last eight years she has developed her practice in art & design, becoming a successful illustrator and a graphic artist, especially for children’s books. In her work, Polina prefers to mix techniques and experiments with materials and has illustrated more than 10 books, three of which were awarded international prizes.

Polina & Stefaniia’s WG residency is supported by Dutch Fund for Ukrainian artists, Mondriaan Fund, airWG and Artists at Risk.