Picnic Season: Dodeka with Grace Gloria Denis

Related exhibition: Dodeka: 12 Works for 12 Cantons

With: Grace Gloria Denis

And:

Session 1: 08.09 – Ligue Santé Mentale 

Session 2: 09.09 – Douri asbl & Swaida Luxembourg

Session 3: 10.09 – SINGA Luxembourg

Language: LU/FR/DE/EN 

Access:

No experience or material required 

Free admission 

Booking required: [email protected]   

Subject to change or cancellation 

A collaborative programme between a guest artist and local charity associations, the Picnic Seasonaims to promote community engagement and cultural exchange through a series of dedicated workshops. Developed independently with each association, these workshops invite participants to explore ideas and contribute to a shared objective, culminating in a tangible final outcome. Through this process, organisations that have never met or collaborated directly become connected by a collective creation that embodies the richness and diversity of their contributions.

As part of this edition of Picnic Season, artist and researcher Grace Gloria Denis presents an extension of her project developed for the Dodeka programme at Mudam, in collaboration with Frank Adams of SEED. Using the Beurré de Jalhay cabbage as a point of departure, the project explores questions of domestication and the tensions between biological diversity and technological systems of seed governance. 

Absent from the official European Union seed catalogue, this variety survives today only through citizen-led seed-saving networks. Documented since 1934 in the Hautes Fagnes region, the Beurréde Jalhay becomes the catalyst for a listening session and the collective creation of a cabbage cookbook. During these three encounters, participants are invited to reflect on what it means for a plant to endure beyond the structures intended to protect and regulate it. 

Session 1: 08.09.2026

In collaboration with the Service Le Rencontre from Ligue Santé Mentale  

Le Rencontre is a community-based social inclusion service that helps people reconnect through cultural, recreational, and leisure activities. It provides a welcoming and accessible space where participants can build social connections, share experiences, and take part in activities they help shape themselves. Operating with an open-door approach and minimal barriers to participation, Le Rencontre promotes empowerment, recovery, inclusion, and active citizenship. Its main goals are to reduce social isolation, support people affected by mental health conditions, strengthen social skills, and improve overall quality of life through meaningful social engagement. 

Session 2: 09.09.2026

In collaboration with Douri asbl & Swaida Luxembourg  

Douri’s mission revolves around creating tangible impacts within our communities. Through both physical and digital platforms hosting artistic and sociocultural projects, we aim to facilitate the integration of various groups and individuals. The name "Douri" derives from Arabic, meaning sparrow, a resilient bird that thrives across the globe. Like the sparrow, we champion adaptability and integration, advocating for freedom of expression while staunchly opposing discrimination, inequality and violence.

Session 3: 10.09.2026

In collaboration with SINGA Luxembourg  

SINGA means "connect" in Lingala, a language spoken in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As its name suggests, SINGA helps connect newcomers and the local population through various programmes and events designed to facilitate the adaptation and inclusion processes that come with settling in a new place. Present in 7 countries and 17 cities, SINGA works to facilitate and accelerate the integration of asylum seekers and beneficiaries of international protection into their host society. At SINGA, we believe that inclusion and cooperation lead to innovation and unity.

Biography

Grace Gloria Denis.’ work converges agricultural research with interactive installation, braiding together edible matter and sound to propose a convivial and comestible approach to critical inquiry. Implementing the meal as both a medium and a pedagogical tool, her work refers to participatory action research models, engaging in collaborations with actors in local food systems utilising agroecological techniques. Her work considers the all-day interaction with the esculent realm as a political and poetic tool of transmission, inviting a reframing of sensorial relations to consumption practices. Denis received her BFA from Cal Arts and her MFA from TRANS— at HEAD Genève, with a focus on critical pedagogy. Her post-graduate studies include ETH’s World Food Systems Center in Switzerland as well as agroecology at Las Cañadas in Mexico. She has taught and developed non-profit arts education programmes for various institutions, currently working on an eco-pedagogy project linked with HEAD Genève. She recently published the book In, From, and With: Exploring Collaborative Survival and is a member of the Food Art Research Network.