Cooking Sections’ Maaleipä Challenge reshapes Finnish bread culture

Maa = Finnish for soil, dirt, earth, surface of the Earth, ground, country, land
Leipä = Finnish for bread

IHME Helsinki Commission 2024 – Cooking Sections’ Maaleipä Challenge – culminates in a celebration of bread for the future of the soil in Finland at Kellohalli, Helsinki, on Saturday 21 September. Artists Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe devised the nationwide bread challenge for the art-commissioning agency IHME Helsinki. The Maaleipä Challenge is part of Cooking Sections’ wider research platform, CLIMAVORE, which asks how we are to eat as humans change climates.

Finland has a diverse bread culture. Bread ingredients, shape and taste vary according to tradition and region. Now, monoculture farming has impoverished the ground and spoiled the waters, resulting in nutritionally poor food that harms digestive systems.

IHME Helsinki fosters art that promotes the cultural change needed in the environmental crisis. The Maaleipä Challenge is at the heart of that change, encouraging bakers to think about bread ingredients in terms of environmental well-being. The Challenge ran from 15 April until 1 September 2024 and was open to all bread bakers in Finland.

“Maaleipä brings a diverse group of bakers together with farmers and experts in ecology, agriculture, and food policy to envision the future of land use, agroecological grain cultivation and bread production in Finland. We are excited to see how the nationwide Challenge can support farmers and growers to shape soil health across the country and how we can strengthen soil cultures through cultural production,” say the Cooking Sections artists.

Maaleipä is bread for the soil. The Challenge attracted recipes from all over Finland. They use a wide variety of local organic and landrace grains, such as emmer wheat, buckwheat and spelt, sourdough starter and yudane, natural herbs and vegetables, seeds, acorns, bark, root vegetables, mushrooms, seaweed, and even cyprinids. The 14 best breads will be on display and tastable at the Maaleipä Feast on Saturday 21 September.

The jury will select five bread candidates to receive prizes. During the celebration, visitors will have an opportunity to join jury members in a workshop on food security. There will be a market selling soil-friendly products, plus music and treats inspired by Maaleipä. After the event, the best recipes will be published on the maaleipa.fi website.

More information:
Paula Toppila, Executive Director and Curator IHME Helsinki
paula.toppila@ihmehelsinki.fi, +358 45 1240 096

Press photos:
Saara Moisio, Communications Planner
saara.moisio@ihmehelsinki.fi, +358 45 235 0080

Our work is made possible in the years 2023-2025 by the Saastamoinen Foundation, Kone Foundation and Abakanowicz Arts and Culture Charitable Foundation.