In this episode, in conversation with Mariana Martinez Balvanera, we discuss the work of Cocina CoLaboratorio and together explore different arenas of practice, in which together with communities, researchers, artists and spatial practitioners, alternative ways of production and consumption are not only imagined, but enacted. This is achieved through cooking, eating, listening, discussing, and most importantly caring for our human and non-human communities.

Imagination is reframed as a disruption to the ordinary ways of operation, an active transformation of narratives, an arrow that frames a direction, and a collective effort of asking “How do we get there?”.

Mariana Martinez Balvanera is a spatial and social designer based in Mexico City, working in the realm of community lead urban and rural placemaking projects, within the critical spatial practice approach. Mariana holds a Bachelor of Interior Architecture (CENTRO, Mexico City), and a Master in Narrative Environments (Central St Martins, UAL, London). She has collaborated in many socio-spatial and research projects and collectives, and has received a number of awards, such as the What Design Can Do's "Climate Action Challenge" and the MUAC's William Bullock Prize for Critical Museology. She moreover, has experience as a tutor and guest lecturer in Mexico and the Netherlands. Mariana co-founded Cocina CoLaboratorio in 2018.