ubiquitousssssssssssssssssugar: exhibition, debate, closing events
About this activity.
At SIGN
17/10-15/11 2026
ubiquitousssssssssssssssssugar
In an increasingly uncertain world, where established institutions and social traditions offer fewer points of stability, sugar has become an ever-present and readily accessible part of everyday life. Its ubiquity raises important social and nutritional questions, while its growing invisibility within processed foods obscures the cultural histories and social meanings it carries. Moving beyond the dominant narrative that casts sugar solely as a harmful dietary substance, this exhibition aims to reconsider its complex place in contemporary society. How might artistic practices open up alternative ways of understanding sugar, revealing its cultural, historical, and material dimensions while inviting a critical reflection on the habits, values, and systems that shape its consumption?
For this exhibition, co curator Diego Virgen together with SIGN Project Space present a compilation of scenarios developed across the domains of food studies, art, space, and speculative processes in relation to sugar. From a diverse young base of artists from different cities across the Netherlands,
‘ubiquitousssssssssssssssssugar’ plans to embark us all on artistic research processes along with conversations with dentists, farmers, scientists, politicians, and sugar addicts.
Participating artists/ collectives:
Shuang Xu
Jonas Palekas
MIST: Rebekka Bank & Tomás Ornaghi –
Goblin Feast: Carla Menas, Chris Nelck, Paul Smullenberg, Jô Páscoa –
VELD: Collectief Inès Buter, Lotte d’Ailly, Liz de Vries, Rina Hellinga
Fabas: Alejandra López, Lena Longefay.
About the Co Curator:
Diego Virgen (MX) works at the intersection of food studies, sociology, cooking, and everyday life. His research focuses on collective human encounters and the journey food takes—from production, sourcing, and consumption to the imaginaries and speculations that arise around it. In his recent work, he explores sweets and the ways people relate to sugar from both sociological and artistic perspectives.
www.diegovirgen.com
OPEN conversation
Dissolving Sugar: Futures Beyond Stigma
Friday, November 6th, 20:00 - 22:00
We warmly invite you to an open conversation, moderated by ubiquitousssssssssssssssssugar curator Diego Virgen. We will discuss the current state of affairs surrounding sugar as an opportunity to engage in a collective conversation - within an artistic context - about the specific nature of sugar, its possibilities, and future alternatives, while simultaneously reflecting on its past and origins. Perhaps we can learn from the experiences we, as a society, have had over the past centuries, and the ones we are having at a public health nutritional level from an epidemiological and agricultural perspective.
During that evening we expect the participation of Professor in Glycobiology Marthe Walvoort from RUG, Phd candidate Dominique Mollet , specialized in health law, artist and researcher Ronald Boer from De Onkruidenier, and Benny Rijzenbol, Educator in Management in the Green Sector, Horticulture, Arable Farming, and Precision Agriculture, and the collectives of VELD & MIST.
CLOSING Events 14 & 15 November
SATURDAY 14th of November from 12-17 hrs
VELD collective,‘Sugar Beet Lab’, demonstrates what a sugar beet can become and what it leaves behind in the landscape.
FABAS Alejandra López (ES) and Lena Longefay (FR): lecture!
Fabas is guided by slow cooking and fermentation techniques, both practically and metaphorically, and is deeply interested in the complex multispecies collaboration involved in food making. They are currently expanding their research into ecofeminist histories and storytellings of food and daily life.
With CANDID SUGAR there is a focus on the notions of health and desire, the sweets become vehicles for emotions (how to eat anger, which flavour for sadness, etc). Fabas research results in a body map in relation to the different effects the sweets can have on the heart, the gut, and the feet by putting these parts of the body in relation with an emotion.
On Saturday 14th November, Fabas will activate their work with a small talk and a sweet tasting.
SUNDAY 15th of November from 14-17 hrs
MIST ,‘Restorage’: a reading with hot drinks by Rebekka Bank (DK) and Tomás Ornaghi (IT)
GOBLINS FEAST, sweet potluck. Come and make sure to bring your favorite sweets and share the potluck!!
SIGN.
SIGN is een levendige en experimentele projectruimte voor actuele interdisciplinaire kunst op nationaal niveau. Zij biedt jonge kunstenaars een podium voor verdere profilering, ontwikkeling en intensivering van hun kunstenaarschap. Daarbij wordt nieuw werk geïnitieerd in bijzondere contexten en wordt de nodige reflectie gegeven. Presentaties zijn er in SIGN, op allerlei locaties, en in openbare ruimte met een variatie aan omstandigheden, invalshoeken, disciplines.
SIGN wordt ondersteund door Mondriaan Fonds Kunstpodium Basis 2025-2028 en door de Gemeente Groningen voor dezelfde periode.
Location.
SIGN
Winschoterkade 10
9711 EA Groningen
tel 050-3132651 of 0623631796
www.sign2.nl