ABUNDANCE LAB

What does a garden that emerges from an abandoned picnic smell of? How do you make compost and compost yourself? What sun-based systems invite us to imagine desirable futures? The Abundance Lab is a meeting place, a starting point: we can decide what we want to be from now on, and it’s best to do it together.

Between Mad Max dystopias and eco-anxiety, we need new, inspiring horizons. Solarpunk[CM1]  is an emerging countercultural movement that aims to provide an imaginative and constructive response to problems like the climate emergency, social inequality and the crisis of democracy.

The Abundance Lab seeks to create an ever-evolving hub for aesthetic and cultural innovation, based on a unique starting point: we can decide what we want to be from now on. And it’s best to do it together.

The terrace garden at the Museo CA2M continues to grow thanks to a group of local residents who provide it with tender loving care by planting seasonal crops, preparing and aerating the soil, managing sustainable watering and organic pest control, supplying compost and maintaining the beds to ensure that everything thrives. If you’d like to join the group—whether because you want to learn the basics from scratch or because you have lots of experience to share—write to us at

PROGRAMME

PREAMBLING. 16 January, 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm. Introductory session

What sun-based systems invite us to imagine desirable futures? Preambling is the first meeting of the Abundance Lab, a starting point: what cuttings does our garden emanate from?

We’ll begin by focusing on and pooling our points of reference and desires, seeds from which we’ll take cuttings to lay down the foundations of a garden. Our guest on this occasion is Emilio Santiago Muiño, a social anthropologist and researcher at the CSIC who will provide us with some background about the current international scene in terms of ecology and the crisis of ecosystems. He’ll help us to map where we are right now so that together we can then chart a path in the direction we want to go. If you're concerned about what’s happening and not sure what you can do about it, this is the place for you.

NEXT SESSIONS 30 January: start of the collective project; 13 and 27 February; 13 and 27 March; 10 and 24 April; 15 and 29 May; 12 June.

Xisela Garcia Moure is an expert in organic farming, permaculture and specialised techniques for urban vegetable gardens and sustainable food. She’s also an active member of the Instituto de Transición Rompe el Círculo [Break the Circle Transition Institute] and has coordinated the CA2M Terrace Garden since 2013.

Marina Viñaras Germano orbits and inhabits spaces related to ecosystems, identity and neurodivergence. Currently focusing on landscaping practice, she belongs to the collective where things continue and to the Iniciativa Regadera [Watering Can Initiative], through which she explores new ways of relating to territory.