This year's theme of the Oxford Food Symposium is

 

Gardens, Flowers & Fruit.

 

The FoodMuseum joins the symposium with the opening of new Botanical Gardens, with edible succulents, amazing plants and flowers you've probably never seen and tasted before, the Dyonisus vineyard with a very old bottle of wine, and a restaurant where you can taste dishes prepared with spices and herbs from our own gardens.

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For visiting the Botanical Gardens: click on the announcement below and follow the green signs.

 

More information about this unsurpassed symposium: www.oxfordsymposium.org.uk

‘All that is valuable will decay’

 

Food is deeply rooted in every culture. Any meal is a crossroads of rituals and traditions that connect people and distinguish cultures.

 

The FoodMuseum collects and presents food in a cultural context. It tells the stories behind objects and traditions from different perspectives: historical, ethnological and gastronomical. From age-old Chinese traditions to part-time vegetarianism, from Dutch herring to Moroccan pastry, from edible clay to seacucumbers: food turns out to be a unique entrance to identity and diversity within a country, a city or a neighbourhood.

 

The museum initiates projects and exhibitions and co-operates with museums, (private) collections and projects.

 

Nothing is fixed and frozen in the FoodMuseum. It grows organically, depending on chance encounters and whatever actuality throws at us.

 

Concept and design:

Linda Roodenburg (Rotterdam, the Netherlands

IT: Olivier Hokke (Delft, the Netherlands)

 

Interested in cooperation with the FoodMuseum related to your project or collection?

The options are limitless in time and space.

 

address: www.foodmuseum.nl

contact: info@lindaroodenburg.com

 

 

VERTUMNUS

by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1591

 

This is Vertumnus, supervisor of our new Botanical Gardens, painted by the Italian Giuseppe Arcimboldo.

 

In Roman mythology, Vertumnus is the god of seasons, change and plant growth, as well as gardens and fruit trees. He could change his form at will. Vertumnus' cult arrived in Rome around 300 BC, and a temple to him was constructed on the Aventine Hill by 264 BC.

 

Vertunmus consists of multiple fruits, vegetables and flowers that come together to create a portrait of Roman Emperor Rudolf II. Arcimboldo was employed in Rudolf II's court and Vertumnus has become one of his most popular paintings. This portrait of the emperor is created out of edible plants from all seasons: gourds, pears, apples, cherries, grapes, wheat, artichokes, beans, peas, corns, onions, cabbage foils, chestnuts, figs, mulberries, plums, pomegranates, various pumpkins and olives.

 

These are far from arbitrary.

For example, the use of corn as Emperor Rudolf II's ear (a crop originating from the New World) can be seen as a pointedly political decision. By putting in particular foreign crops, Rudolf II is revealing that he has access to these items showcasing his power and wealth.

 

For visiting the Botanical Gardens: click on the announcement below and follow the green signs.