Fermenting Archives: Microbial Matter as History Holder


by Eleonora Edreva & Leo Williams


In 2019, Ele and Leo were invited to contribute a submission to fermenting feminism (hunter’s moon), a publication put together by curator Lauren Fournier and designer Zille Bostinius after the culmination of the two-day exhibiton and programming of Fermenting Feminism (Hunter’s Moon) in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2018.

Fermenting Feminism brought together artists whose work responds to what it means to bring fermentation and feminism into the same critical space. These works approach fermentation through intersectional and trans-inclusive feminist frameworks, and approach feminisms through the metaphor and material practice of fermentation. As both a metaphor and a physical process, fermentation embodies bioavailability and accessibility, preservation and transformation, inter-species symbiosis and coevolution, biodiversity and futurity, harm reduction and care.

Fermenting Archives: Microbial Matter as History Holder was our collaborative response to exploring fermentation as a metaphor, fermentation as a physical and a material practice for preserving through transforming, fermentation as material-discursive and caring practices in/and the field of feminist art and literature.