A site-specific installation and participatory performance by CHild Collective as part of the World Ethic Forum Event, The Earth’s Aliveness: A journey to the Microbiome of our Planet – Helvetiaplatz, June 22nd 2025.
Written by CHild Collective
Microcosmos Común is a living installation and collective performance that invites participants to immerse themselves—both literally and symbolically—into the planetary microbiome. At the heart of a bustling urban square, a plastic pool—an everyday, discarded object—becomes a vessel for invisible life: a liquid replica of the Earth’s microbiome composed of compost extracts, seaweed from Norway, coastal waters, and local organic waste, activated in collaboration with scientists, artists, and cooks.
Through gestures of care, fermentation, planting, and cooking, the performance bridges the health of the soil and that of the human body. Using food recovered from waste streams—such as fermented apples from Swiss valleys and wild algae—the audience experiences a symbiotic ritual where soil, water, and gut bacteria mirror one another. The scene unfolds as an offering: moving bodies that honor the invisible and return to the Earth what our systems discard.
In a time of planetary urgency, Microcosmos Común becomes a space for collective reflection and nourishment. This ephemeral ecosystem does not merely replicate the microbiome—it celebrates it. It invites a new pact between bodies, territories, and biological memory, creating space for deep dialogue between art, science, ancestral practices, and ecological restoration.
We will offer fermented preparations that echo the themes of the work: seaweed infusions, fermented apples, sourdoughs, misos, and pickled harvests. These edible microbiomes become part of the performance, activating the body as a vessel for transformation.
The installation will happen on Helvetia Platz, Zurich on June 22, 2025. Lunch tickets for 10 or 15 CHF are available on our ticket site here.
You can read more about the World Ethic Forum Microbiome event, happening at the Volkshaus, here.
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The Zero-Waste Menu:
1. Base:
Cracker-plate
– A dehydrated, sturdy flatbread infused with local grains and wild herbs,
acting both as a serving dish and as part of the meal.
→ Variations may include: amaranth and yuyo, spirulina and sourdough crisp, or sea salt
and cochayuyo (1).
2. Core:
Seasonal Hummus
– Made from legumes recovered from surplus markets, flavored with seasonal vegetables, fermented garlic, and smoked seeds.
→ Examples: carrot and cumin hummus, fava bean with lemon peel kraut, or beet and citrus ferments.
3. Living Salad:
Vegetables of Second Life
– A colorful medley of imperfect or “rejected” produce, gently cured or fermented to prolong freshness, tossed with citrus zest and herbs.
→ Includes: apple peels, bent cucumbers, wild greens, sprouted beans.
4. Topping Ritual:
Nordic Seaweed Tipping Dust
– A fragrant blend of dehydrated seaweeds (kelp, dulse, cochayuyo), wild seeds, and fermented salt. A pinch is offered as a final blessing to the dish.
5. Living Salad: Vegetables of Second Life + Organic Local Mix
A vibrant assembly of second-hand vegetables—those bent, bruised, or overlooked by conventional markets—revived through fermentation, pickling, or curing. These are gentlypaired with a fresh organic mix of local wild greens and herbs, harvested from nearby regenerative farms or foraged landscapes.
→ Examples:
Apple peels, sprouted lentils, and shaved turnip in a citrus brine
Wilted beet greens revived with fermented onion oil
Local greens like dandelion, amaranth leaves, rocket, mustard sprouts, and edible flowers dressed with probiotic vinaigrettes
Each salad is a portrait of place and season, where recovery meets renewal. The living mix changes depending on what the land offers—and what the system has neglected.
🌊 Ritual Context
Each meal is offered with a collective gesture of thanks—inviting guests to sprinkle seaweed
dust as a symbolic act of reconnecting with the ocean and its microbial intelligence.
No plates to return. No forks to wash.
Just hands, earth, and the circular rhythm of nourishment.
🌊 RITUAL DEL AGUA / COASTAL FERMENTATION OFFERING
for the memory of water — por la memoria del agua
This is not a pool.
Es una matriz.
A place where mutations become prayers
and microbes become our oldest teachers.
We bring with us the breath of the coast,
el espíritu del cochayuyo (1),
la fuerza de la jarilla (2),
el fuego medicinal del palo azul (3),
y el canto dulce de la manzana silvestre del valle.
Water from the Atlantic murmurs with invisible life.
It carries the memory of hands that once gathered seaweed without borders —
hands of the Mapuche (4), the Qom (5), the Guaraní (6),
who knew the tides as teachers,
the soil as grandmother,
and the algae as kin.
We sit in silence.
Fermentation speaks:
bubbles, decay, rebirth.
Ñuke Mapu (7) listens.
🫧
We call upon the microbiome,
la matriz invisible,
to remind us:
That water is not passive.
That ecosystems dream.
That fermentation is a form of deep time care.
This is an offering
to the waters that raised us,
to the algae that feed us,
to the ancestors that carried salt in their skin.
Let this be a temporary sacred site —
a microbial mirror,
a fermented prayer,
an act of regenerative disobedience.
📜 NOTES / EXPLANATIONS
1. Cochayuyo –
A brown algae (Durvillaea antarctica) native to the southern Pacific
Ocean, traditionally harvested and consumed by Indigenous peoples along the
Chilean and Argentine coast.
2. Jarilla –
A native medicinal shrub used in central and western Argentina, known for
its healing and purifying properties.
3. Palo Azul –
A healing wood used in infusions, especially by communities in northern
Argentina and the Andes. Known for its anti-inflammatory and detoxifying qualities.
4. Mapuche –
Indigenous peoples of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina,
guardians of coastal and Andean ecosystems. Deep spiritual and cultural ties to the
land and sea.
5. Qom (Toba) –
Indigenous group from the Gran Chaco region in northern Argentina,
with profound botanical and ecological knowledge.
6. Guaraní –
A large Indigenous group in northeastern Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil.
Deeply connected to rivers, forests, and the spiritual dimension of plants.
7. Ñuke Mapu
–
“Mother Earth” in Mapudungun, the language of the Mapuche people.
A spiritual entity representing the land and all living beings.
