Matthew Mazzotta’s multi-sensory performance art piece, Harm to Table, was a mobile dining experience with a metamorphosing dining table that invited participants to “eat their environment.” The dining experience featured a focused menu with each item featuring an ingredient anticipated to be extinct in the next 20-40 years due to climate change. Commissioned by Boulder’s Office of Arts and Culture as part of the 2016 Experiments in Public Art program, Harm to Table turned the abstract threat of environmental degradation into a tangible, digestible experience.
Originating in Boulder, Colorado—the city with the nation’s highest concentration of federal labs tracking climate change—Harm to Table translated climate scientists’ research into an immersive experience where participants could “taste” the impacts of the changing climate. Traveling to six locations within Boulder from August 20 to September 25, 2016, the project then toured the country to spark conversation about climate change. As ecological systems continued to face disruption, the Harm to Table menu shifted to reflect these changes. The piece provided an opportunity for diners to sit down in natural settings and experience a taste of their region’s vanishing resources, directly confronting the phenomenon of environmental loss through the universal act of sharing a meal.
Mazzotta partnered with local industry leaders to build a specifically-Boulder menu: Rowdy Mermaid Kombucha crafted Ponderosa Osha Kombucha, Chef Tim Hessenbruch crafted a Wild Sarsaparilla and Sweet Grass Soup, and Fortuna Chocolate provided Chocolate Financiers with local bee pollen. The result: organic and impromptu conversations about one of our community's most pressing topics.
