Past Exhibition Ran from 18 May 2019 to 20 October 2019

FOOD: Bigger than the Plate

Inviting visitors to participate, taste and debate, this bold exhibition explored current experiments at every stage of the food system – from compost to table

★★★★ a curious delight, just don't go in hungry.

The Independent

a punchy, fun look at the food chain

The Times

This exhibition is now closed at V&A South Kensington

From urban farming to gastronomic experiments and synthetic meat, this exhibition brought together the politics and pleasure of food to ask how the collective choices we make can lead to a more sustainable, just and delicious food future.

Exhibition Trailer

FOOD: Bigger than the Plate trailer
Sponsored by

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Exhibition Highlights

Photo of a brown chicken up close. Orange eye.
Mechelse Maatiaiskana, 22nd generation Cosmopolitan Chicken Project, photograph. © Koen Vanmechelen
BOVRIL written at top. Brown, horned highland cow crying and looking at a jar of Bovril. Text saying "Alas! My poor brother"
Alas! My poor Brother, poster advertising Bovril, designed by W.H. Caffyn, advertising agent S.H. Benson, 1905, UK. . Museum no. E.147-1973. Reproduced courtesy of CPC Ltd © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Plastic bags full of layers of coffee grounds hanging up from chains. One bag has mushrooms growing from the side of it
Urban Mushroom Farm . © GroCycle
Cross sections of sausages made from different things. One is pink with green in, one is orange. Some have bugs on
The Sausage of the Future, Carolien Niebling. Photo: Noortje Knulst.
Four photos. Each has two breakfasts laid out in symmetry. Meals include juices, shakshuka, bagels
Symmetry Breakfast, Michael Zee. © Michael Zee
Hand holding up an edible translucent water pod. Blue background
Ooho! edible water bottle, Skipping Rocks Lab.
Community of people picking hops. Gazeebo, brown building with pointed roofs in background
Hop-picking trip, 2018. Courtesy of Company Drinks, photo Nick Matthews.
Teracotta looking toilet bowl. Orange colour
Merdacotta . © Henrik Blomqvist
Several tall and short terracotta pots with lids. Some are painted green, red and yellow. Other are left natural
Daily Dump Compost at Home, India.
Rainbow gradient background from orange to yellow to green. Birds, butterflies and fruit - pomegranate, apple, berries on top
(Detail) Fruits from the Garden and the Field, rainbow wallpaper, 2019. © Fallen Fruit, 2019
Collage. Mountains in background, glacial lake with fish in flowing into middle. Green grass and shrubbery at sides. Cows
(Detail) Supernatural, by Uli Westphal, 2019. Commissioned by the V&A
Circular orange wrapper. Bright orange pictures of oranges with blossoms and leaves. Interior circle has a person inside
'Griechische Oranges. Prinz von Kreta', fruit wrapper, 20th century, Italy. Museum no. E.1704-1974. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Studies of bees and other insects
Studies of bees and other insects, by Beatrix Potter, about 1895, watercolour over pencil. Linder Collection cat. no. LC 19/B/5. © Victoria & Albert Museum, London, courtesy Frederick Warne & Co Ltd. and The Trustees of the Linder Collection
White plates, pots, and cups, with blue inky splat decoration
(Base) The Human Trace Tableware, by Ewa Klekot and Arkadiusz Szwed, 2016 – 2018. © Arkadiusz Szwed
A potato with a pair of square framed glasses in front of it
Parblex, glasses made from non-food-grade industrial potato waste in production. © Chip[s] Board
Five husks of corn. Varying colours - red, purple, yellow. On a wooden jigsaw-like surface of similar colours
(Detail) Totomoxtle table, Fernando Laposse.
Two white and blue eggcups. One says 'HARD BREXIT' and has acorns and leaves. The other says 'SOFT BREXIT' and has clouds
Brexit Ware eggcups, Harriet Coles.

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FOOD: Bigger than the Plate