Antonio de la Hera’s practice stems out of from inquiries into his direct environment, thinking about societal issues in connection to waste, agriculture, ethics and food sovereignty. His background working with archives informs his approach. He creates structures to access information using graphics, websites, printed matter, carpentry, cooking, and amateur engineering. These structures are intended to encourage one to see and think about cities, supply chains, or raw materials in different ways, in order to devise alternatives.
The Living Resource Survey, 2023 - The Living Resource Survey was performed and broadcast on Stranded.FM in Utrecht together with Honey Jones-Hughes. The project was an opportunity to work through and make public the ‘waste materials’ from previous collaborative projects and works. Using the framework of archiving in order to revisit and review the projects we’d worked on collaboratively, our goal was to see which new connections we could make from material that we had not had the chance to make public and see how collaging those unused works might bring about new ideas. In other words, we wanted to see how we could create a sort of circular economy for the collaborative work we had been doing over the last years.
What’s in a Packed Lunch? 2023 - Public programme for Sustaining Small Acts at TENT, Rotterdam, NL. In collaboration with Honey-Jones-Hughes. A process of alchemy is happening in Rotterdam. Waste is being transformed back into raw materials, re-routed from landfill and back into our ever more productive economy. The dream: a perfect, never-ending, closed loop. This project arose out of on-going research into waste streams and infrastructure in and around the city of Rotterdam. The experience was designed to resemble the format of a school trip: Participants were given a packed lunch and went along a pre-determined route with directions printed on a specially designed napkin. The first stop was at the offices of international commercial waste company, Renewi, where sales director Robert Jooren, gave a presentation about the company. To contrast this perspective the group travelled to a second site, the Grondstoffenstation, about 15 minutes on public transport. This latter site is a new grass-roots inititative in Rotterdam’s Afrikaandermarkt which aims to recoup and process all the market waste on site to benefit local residents. Here, the group had a verbal presentation in front of the half-built construction, soon to be the waste facility. The lunchbox made for the trip used ingredients from local farms and producers, some of them were ‘waste’ items, some processed into a meal format. Included in the bag was a small ‘ingredients list’ outlining source of ingredients and also the ‘waste’ created in the process of (making) the experience.
The Frysian food supply chain in 3 episodes, 2023 - Three part workshop series with students from MBO Aeres, Leeuwarden, NL. In collaboration with Honey Jones-Hughes. For this project we chartered existing supply chains in Friesland, looking at both small and large-scale producers with local and international outreach. From this map we developed a three-part workshop series for MBO students in the Life Sciences and Food Innovation courses. We took them along the food supply chain, but in reverse, making pitstops at sites that were attempting alternative models that relied less on ‘traditional’ economies of scale, and passing by leading industry sites. Stops included De Streekboer1 (distributor), Wald Suval (industrial dairy farm with own point of sale), BioBoerPeter2 (Large egg farm with processing installation on site), a whistle stop tour around 6 industrial bakeries in Leeuwarden (from Dr Oetker to Borgesius), and CSA farm Yn’e Sinne. This project resulted from invitation from the MBO Aeres in tandem with a residency at VHDG in Leeuwarden. (Pictured: Joel from Yn’e Sinne, from Episode 3)
Best Practice, 2023 - In collaboration with Honey Jones-Hughes. This project was a continuation of our research into Dutch agricultural landscapes and industries, but this time in the province of Friesland, following an invitation by Stichting VHDG in Leeuwarden. The project involved a month long research period focusing and thinking about larger scale farming, how farmers and society should balance ecology and economy, and how cultural histories create challenges. As the research developed a distinct interest in “packaging” emerged. In other words how farmers, producers, or groups can communicate their (ecological) intentions and approaches, especially when deliberately avoiding industrial “best practice” methods, in a consumer market full of a broad range of “green” claims. We produced a series of lightbox-objects and composed accompanying stories to “package” some of the narratives we had harvested during the research period. The objects and stories reflected the polyvalent nature of decisions farmers and producers take in finding the right balance. The in-process objects were on show in Kunstruimte H47, Leeuwarden, for the second month of the project.
Manhattan aan de Maas, 2023 - at WORM Pirate Bay Archive, Rotterdam, NL. In collaboration with Honey Jones-Hughes. During this 2 month residency period we dove into WORM’s Pirate Bay Archive, in particular the board games collection. Board games are useful tools to play out social situations, or role-play an alternative set of circumstances. Monopoly, for example, has all the players start out on equal footing, racing as capitalists to become the dominant 1%, in control of most if not all of the capital and housing stock. We used the archive to prototype a board game that reflected the challenges of the contemporary housing market in The Netherlands (on a board that resembled Rotterdam), introducing socio-economic diversity via character role-play, and policy shifting potential through the introduction of a game-master in the role of a mayor. This prototype and first version of the game Manhattan aan de Maas can be played in The Pirate Bay Archive.
DIY Seaweed Farming: a how-to-do-it at home guide, 2023 - DIY Seaweed Farming: a ‘how to do it at home’ guide is the result of an experimental research project, Urban Algaculture, 2022-23 (with Honey Jones-Hughes). The booklet features a written introduction by Kate Price, a fellow farmer, artist and researcher based in Rotterdam; instructions to assemble a basic domestic micro-farm for sea lettuce; information on seaweed growth and decay; tips on sourcing equipment; and a text expanding on our findings, photos, and scans from notebooks. The guide is designed in line with the kinds of guide you receive for flat-pack furniture, for cameras, for freezers - a black-and-white booklet, glue bound, printed on thin paper.
Urban Algaculture?, 2022-23 (with Honey Jones-Hughes) - A research project where we attempted to create a sea-like environment in our kitchen with the intention of nurturing seaweed to for human consumption. In essence we were trying to create a micro seaweed farm in our home, hoping to create the perfect environment for what is being hailed as a miracle crop capable to of solving climate, plastic and even fuel issues. As a project it was interesting for us to explore what it meant to try to replicate the sea in a confined environment, to live together with seaweed in captivity, and the daily labour of caring for something that was in many ways like a houseplant. For us, the use of technology to try to maintain an isolated ecosystem was interesting as a metaphor for how we as humans try to 'conserve’ a version of nature that we can never know truly existed. Supported by Stimuleringsfonds NL.
Sociale Field Study, 2022, digital print, 330mm x 483mm (with Honey Jones-Hughes) - This map is the result of a week long residency in Lago, Italy. The map is a visual illustration of collected observations in the area that is also the D.O.C.G. region for prosecco. We made use of unidentified indigenous plants, collected around the permieter of the lakes to denote sites and people of interest. On the reverse side (not depicted) an index comprised of key sites, people and words with useful definitions. The map inquires into the tensions existing around conservation and preservation of traditions, customs and nature, with local and international economic pressures as the backdrop.
BUURTIJS, 2020-22 (with Honey Jones-Hughes) - BUURTIJS originated from a challenge to make the ice cream only with the most ethical ingredients we could source by bike, from our kitchen in Rotterdam. The project developed into a body of research framed by the challenge: what does local really mean? What are ethical farming practices? How does industry extend, preserve and shape the choices farmers make? Are ethical products even possible within capitalism? Out os this came out a hybrid of recipes, stories, products, and a network of people related to the ingredients.
BUURTIJS, 2020-22 (With Honey Jones-Hughes) - From the bakfiets we converted, we are selling our ice cream to people who would like to try it. In exchange we ask for a 'solidarity payment' a structure present in other industries that we learnt about from Elske Hageraats, who is applying it in the CSA (community supported agriculture) farm in Renkum. The idea is simple, people pay for our labour in relation to their own hourly wage.
