Seaweed Becomings is the third and final installment of Federico Rizzo’s residency at Mediamatic, following Sampling the Canal and Casting the Canal. Combining a hand-cast table made from dredged canal sediment with a seaweed-inspired menu by TestTafel chef Hamish Day, this performative dining experience explores ecological memory, local materials, and multispecies coexistence in Amsterdam's waterways.
Seaweed Becomings is a sculptural installation and performative dining experience. At its centre is a hand-cast table and seats made from lime mortar mixed with sand dredged from the adjacent canal, embedded with algae and urban sediment collected on site. The table functions as both a symbolic object and a functional dining surface, a material record of the Amsterdam waterways brought into the cultural space.
The project extends Salicornia Studio's ongoing research into territorial materials and food as medium, connecting the post-industrial waterways of Amsterdam to broader questions of ecological memory, multispecies coexistence, and regenerative food systems. It follows Dizionario dei Disastri (Salento, 2026) in establishing a recognisable formal language: the long table as a convivial symbol, raw local material as narrative carrier.
In collaboration with one of TestTafel's chefs - Hamish Day, the dining experience brings a menu inspired by seaweed.
Federico Rizzo (b. 1998) is a designer and researcher whose work allows interspecies encounters within various habitats, enabling a shift in the food-chain hierarchies and supply economy.
Federico has recently graduated in the MA programme The Critical Inquiry Lab at Design Academy Eindhoven and he is currently developing a practice related to food here in the Netherlands. Salicornia studio is his workplace in Eindhoven.
