Reading Palm

Reading Palm opens up a collective interrogation of the history of palm oil, unfolding through a tasting of palm oil dishes and a group reading of selected chapters from Max Haiven’s Palm Oil: The Grease of Empire (2022). Consumption takes on literal and allegorical dimensions in Nurvista’s workshop—eating, reading, and digesting together transform palm oil from a symbol of exploitative and industrialized economic cycles originating from the colonial structures of the nineteenth century into a vital ingredient of hospitality, critical exchange, and rethinking patterns of production and consumption.

The participants will be asked to collectively read a chapter from the book, which will be distributed during the workshop, and Nurvista will invite the participants to eat the palm oil products mentioned in the book. The workshop will take place in the room where Nurvista prepared a mural painted with palm oil prior to the event.

Language: English

Image caption:

Elia Nurvista, Palm Reading workshop at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 2023. Courtesy of KfW Stiftung, photo by G. Fierman.