TEMPORARY KITCHEN 2026 #2
Onto the Streets of Mumbai with Prashant & Eva
A culinary afternoon exploring street food, literature, and urban life in Mumbai
Sun 27 September, 3—6 p.m.

 

Meeting point: 3 pm
Dawat Indian Restaurant, Fleischmengergasse 29, 50676 Cologne
From 4 pm, we will make our way together from the restaurant to Temporary Gallery for the second part of the event.

No registration required!
The event is free of charge.

On 27 September, Prashant & Eva will bring cooking, food, literature and stories from the city of Mumbai to Temporary Gallery and the Mauritiusviertel in Cologne with their format „Onto the Streets of Mumbai“, in cooperation with the Indian restaurant Dawat on Fleischmengergasse.

The focus of the event is food as an everyday and social practice. Street food is deeply rooted in the life of the city of Mumbai: it takes place on streets and markets, at railway stations and in front of shops, bringing people together in public space. The Temporary Kitchen as a mobile structure becomes a starting point for reflecting on the city, its different ways of life, and the role of streets and street food.

Prashant & Eva explore the flavours of Mumbai's streets, with sweet, tangy and spicy tastes. The food is vegetarian and will be prepared and eaten together, as a small DIY street food experience.

Alongside the food, prose and poetry by, among others, Namdeo Dhasal, Dilip Chitre and Arun Kolatkar, from and about Mumbai, will be read and explored together. The texts are in German and English and tell stories of the city through its streets, architectures, voices, memories and rhythms, opening up another way of experiencing Mumbai beyond its physical geography. Literature and food thus become two different approaches to the everyday life of a city.

The afternoon is conceived as a relaxed atmosphere in which visitors are invited to eat, listen, read and spend time together. A space where food, literature, conversations and shared experiences emerge alongside one another and connect with each other. The food experience is designed to be interactive and participatory.

About the Temporary Kitchen
The Temporary Kitchen is a mobile kitchen that was created as part of the exhibition „Cooking as Performance“ and has been activated through the event series „Temporary Kitchen in the Mauritiusviertel“ since summer 2023 in the context of various formats. Artist Paula Erstmann and curator Lisa Klosterkötter have engaged with the neighbourhood surrounding Temporary Gallery, its local venues, restaurateurs and residents, and, in cooperation with local initiatives, communities and associations, have invited people to cook and eat together in order to get to know each other better, build connections and exchange ideas within the neighbourhood. The mobile kitchen of Temporary Gallery is an open, modular space without walls and on wheels that can be used in public space as a meeting point, summer kitchen, laboratory or stage.

The Temporary Kitchen emerged from the need to engage in conversation with one another in the neighbourhood around Temporary Gallery: through an evening meal on the green strip, a lunchtime snack at the weekly market or a shared shopping trip to the neighbourhood's shops, it seeks to encourage everyday interaction, mutual support and exchange about everything that moves us—and, last but not least, about art.
In this spirit, in 2026 the Temporary Kitchen opened its existing structures through an open call to ideas from initiatives, artists and neighbours, giving them the opportunity to realise their own event in the Mauritiusviertel.

About the artists
Prashant is an architect and visual artist, Eva is a political scientist and musician. They know the Mauritiusviertel well, having lived there for several years. As an interdisciplinary duo, they are interested in public space, participation, food culture and community building. Together, they have already organised collective cooking events, kids' workshops and cultural gatherings.

Their collaborative practice develops formats that bring people together through social and cultural exchange. They understand everyday activities such as cooking, eating, music and spending time together as opportunities for collective experience.

 

 

Image:
Prashant Chevan