70 x 7 The Meal act XXXVIII, Leiden, The Netherlands

This is act thirty-eight of the ongoing series dedicated to food and the ritual of dining. 70 x 7 The Meal act XXXVIII was commissioned for the exhibition Global Imaginations curated by the Museum de Lakenhal Leiden, in an offsite location at the former flour mill, De Meelfabriek. The iconography the artists deployed across the artworks the created for the occasion – a limited edition of Royal Limoges porcelain plates and a woven silk-jacquard table runner – included imagery and text referencing water in all its forms, and historical symbols drawn from the collection of the Museum de Lakenhal. The theme of the meal was drawn from the results of a youth conference organised by High School Pupils from the city of Leiden, in collaboration with network organisation Leiden Global, The National Museum of World Cultures and SKOL (Schools in Leiden). Questions arising from the conference, including what it means to be a local and global citizen, and sustainability issues such as water usage were posed to the 100 guests assembled for the meal, among these were the Minister of the Environment, the Mayor of Leiden and officers from different water treatment facilities around the region. Alongside the diner installation Lucy + Jorge Orta exhibited their OrtaWater Purification Factory, which pumped polluted water from the Zijl-canal adjacent to De Meelfabriek, where it was purified and distributed to visitors of the Global Imaginations exhibition and assembled dinner guests