Seaweed Becomings
Seaweed Becomings is the third and final installment of Federico Rizzo’s residency at Mediamatic, following Sampling the Canal and Casting the Canal. Combining a hand-cast table made from dredged canal sediment with a seaweed-inspired menu by TestTafel chef Hamish Day, this performative dining experience explores ecological memory, local materials, and multispecies coexistence in Amsterdam's waterways.
Would you like to join us for this unique experience? Send us a two-line motivation email at program@mediamatic.nl before Tuesday, September 22nd, for a chance to win a guest ticket!
Seaweed Becomings is a sculptural installation and performative dining experience. At its centre is a hand-cast table and seats made from lime mortar mixed with sand dredged from the adjacent canal, embedded with algae and urban sediment collected on site. The table functions as both a symbolic object and a functional dining surface, a material record of the Amsterdam waterways brought into the cultural space.
The project extends Salicornia Studio's ongoing research into territorial materials and food as medium, connecting the post-industrial waterways of Amsterdam to broader questions of ecological memory, multispecies coexistence, and regenerative food systems. It follows Dizionario dei Disastri (Salento, 2026) in establishing a recognisable formal language: the long table as a convivial symbol, raw local material as narrative carrier.
In collaboration with one of TestTafel's chefs - Hamish Day, the dining experience brings a menu inspired by seaweed.
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Salicornia Studio, Tweezers 2025 © -
Menu
Amuse
Ulva cracker, whipped white bean, pickled sea fennel
First course
Cold Palmaria broth, cucumber, dill oil, raw salicornia
Second course
Pearl barley, Gracilaria, smoked potato, sea herb oil
Third course
Ulva-wrapped buckwheat cake, fermented sea vegetable, Palmaria glaze
Fourth course
Gracilaria panna cotta, apple, linseed crisp
Salicornia Studio
Federico Rizzo (b. 1998) is a designer and researcher whose work allows interspecies encounters within various habitats, enabling a shift in the food-chain hierarchies and supply economy.
Federico has recently graduated in the MA programme The Critical Inquiry Lab at Design Academy Eindhoven and he is currently developing a practice related to food here in the Netherlands. Salicornia studio is his workplace in Eindhoven.
Salicornia Studio/Federico Rizzo at Seaweedland August 2026 - Georg Prenn
With: Salicornia StudioHamish Day
Beyond the TestTafel kitchen, Hamish is a fermentation expert and organizes conceptual dinners surrounding peatland agriculture, exploring how crops grown through wet agriculture (paludiculture) can shift our understanding of landscape, flavour, and food systems - collaborating with organisations across NL to champion local, sustainable ecosystems.
Information
Friday 25 September Doors 16:50 Dinner 17:00–19:00 Language: English After dinner, you’re warmly invited to stay for They Are Watching Us, our residency finissage, starting at 19:30 with performances, installations and multispecies experiments throughout Mediamatic.Would you like to join us for this unique experience? Send us a two-line motivation email at program@mediamatic.nl before Tuesday, September 22nd, for a chance to win a guest ticket!
For questions, please send an email to program@mediamatic.nl.
Salicornia Studio
Federico Rizzo (b. 1998) is a designer and researcher whose work allows interspecies encounters within various habitats, enabling a shift in the food-chain hierarchies and supply economy.
