A social eating and cultural heritage project by Jonas Palekas (LT) and Sean Roy Parker (UK), commissioned for Edible City at Audra Festival

Centred around a makeshift bakery and artist-run canteen inside the Kaunas Picture Gallery, Citizen Sandwich will bring people together through an evolving menu served across AUDRA Festival at multiple locations. Drawing on roaming research and the vernacular of Kaunas life, the project will present hot dishes and bar snacks prepared with ingredients from local producers, alongside the artists’ handmade ferments and preserves of both wild and urban abundance. Every bite will carry meaning.

Preparing food is a form of love; eating together builds connection. Historically, places such as canteens, bakeries, restaurants and bars have been where meals, stories and lives unfold. Against a backdrop of the climate crisis and deepening alienation from each other and our environment, Citizen Sandwich emerges from the city’s precarious relationship with food in late capitalism and post-Soviet trauma. It demonstrates ideas for healing: using pre-modern techniques to extend food lifespans; sharing knowledge of digestive and herbal plant identification; organising communal scavenging for street fruit. Each approach forges new relationships with forgotten knowledge and curious people.

The menu will shift throughout the festival, guided by seasonal availability and the intuitive thinking of cooks. Recipes will blend Lithuania’s cultural heritage with international flavours. Meals will be served from the Kultūra kitchen, surrounded by the forts at Šilainiai Gardens, as well as from pop-ups at markets and inside the festival.

Parker and Palekas are inviting artists and practitioners working with food from the Baltic region and beyond. Alongside cooking for the evolving menu, the team will contribute to critical conversations on food and host themed events throughout the programme. Confirmed participants include: Aga Pokrywka (Ferment Radio), Gintarė Ramančionytė, Izabelė Šuikaitė, Koekeittiö, Kristin Wiking, Liudvikas Buklys, Moira Tirtha, Vytas Narbutas and others.

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Programme

All events at Kultūra Bar in Kaunas Picture Gallery unless stated otherwise.

Saturday 13.09

• 08:00–10:00 – Snacks at Castle Market

• 13:00–16:00 – Hot lunch at Šilainiai Gardens with Kultūros Dirbtuvė

Monday 15.09

• 17:30–18:30 – Harvesting session at Šilainiai Gardens

Tuesday 16.09

• 17:30–18:30 – Harvesting session at Šilainiai Gardens

Wednesday 17.09

• 12:00–17:00 – Drop-in prep day and kitchen skills workshop

Thursday 18.09

• 18:00–19:00 – Koekeittiö opening performance

• 19:00–22:00 – Citizen Sandwich canteen with Gintarė Ramančionytė

Friday 19.09

• 11:00–12:30 – Foraging walk with Sean Roy Parker

• 12:30–13:30 – Grain to Loaf: bread-making demonstration with Praniškaus Malūnas

• 13:00–22:00 – Citizen Sandwich canteen with Kristin Wiking

• 14:00–15:30 – “Market Research”: pickles and ferments tasting; Citizen Sandwich project presentation; Aga Pokrywka recording audio for Ferment Radio

• 16:00–17:00 – DIY Mushroom Growing with Izabelė Šuikaitė

• 19:00 – Nasi Tumpeng Dinner with Moira Tirtha (limited tickets)

Saturday 20.09

• 10:00–12:00 – Market tour and open-fire cooking with Jonas Palekas

• 13:00–22:00 – Citizen Sandwich canteen with Liudvikas Buklys

• 13:00–14:30 – Koekeittiö edible presentation

• 15:00–17:00 – Communal dumpling making in Open Kitchen

• 22:00–01:00 – Arepas and grill at “Pergalė” factory

Sunday 21.09

• 13:00–16:00 – Citizen Sandwich canteen with Vytas Narbutas