Mare Odilia de Boer

Systems are everywhere around us, in society, nature, food, and human connection. But how can we understand our role within a system if we don't know we're part of one?

This project explores solidarity, consumption, and togetherness through a participatory installation in which food becomes a shared system of exchange. Eating becomes more than a simple act: a negotiation between body, installation, participants, and the systems that sustain us. Food exposes our dependence on ecological, social, and economic structures that are fragile and limited.

Participants gather around a table and temporarily form a small, closed system together. By sharing food, they become aware of their place within a larger network of relationships and resources.

What does it mean to consciously exist within systems that require constant care to survive? Come join the system, where to consume is to participate, and every motion affects the whole.

Mare Odilia de Boer is a sensory experience designer based in the Netherlands. By using the ritual of eating, slowing down and coming together she aims to create places for connection and collective meaning-making.

In our society, the use and meaning of every substance, object, product, organism, resource, material and consumable is already decided. We use them in the way we learned to use them, lacking the use of any imagination. Through her work Mare wants to disrupt these soulless interactions we created in our daily life.

She believes that by exploring together with a playful approach we can give new meaning to everyday objects and interactions. Creating a more meaningful connection with our surroundings uncovering the interconnectedness of the world.

Find Mare's work during ArtEZ finals 2026, as part of You've Reached the Center, Please Hold exhibition, at Oude Kraan 26, Arnhem, Design Art Technology (DAT)