Tavola rasa.

A project by Esther-Marie Kröger, Lisa Verena Pape and Kerstin Reilemann | June 2025 | Kunstraum FALTE | as part of INS BLAUE

Ta | vo | la – Italian for table.

The table as an elemental place of coming together, of negotiation, of being in relation with one another. Just a moment ago, the centre of a lively scene; now a still life, telling the story of the people and actions that shaped it.

Ta | bu | la | ra | sa – Latin for blank slate.

The concept of tabula rasa goes back to the English philosopher John Locke (1632–1704), who proposed that human beings are born as a “blank slate” with regard to their characteristics, behaviours and values, and are shaped and influenced in every direction through socialisation.

The question of how we influence our surroundings, how we shape things and how they shape us, and how community comes into being. At the intersection of design, enjoyment and sustainability, a table becomes a stage and a platform for communication for one weekend, bringing together creative makers and food specialists. Let me introduce them.

Lena-Marie Lange brought beautiful ceramics to our table – plates, cups and serving dishes. With a delicate sense of material and form, she creates stoneware objects in her Hamburg studio, both on the potter’s wheel and by hand. Her work is characterised by a clear, timeless design and the natural colour and tactile quality of clay.Sustainability is a central part of her practice. She produces only in small series and takes care throughout the process to create as little waste as possible. Clay and glaze leftovers are collected and reused; packaging is exclusively plastic-free or made from reused materials.

Lisa Verena Pape is Giersch & Gundermann. She brought her flower garden straight to our table. The flowers at G&G are grown without chemical fertilisers or pesticides. They are sown by hand and grow to flowering in the sandy soil of the Lüneburg Heath. In growing and arranging the flowers into bouquets and installations, sustainable materials are used, resources are conserved and, wherever possible, plastic, disposable packaging and unnecessary transport are avoided. Giersch & Gundermann delivers flowers to order in and around Hanover. For our table, Lisa dyed second-hand fabric napkins with black hollyhocks. Her passion for making vegan watercolours gradually developed into a craft of its own.

What began as a hobby is now a firmly established part of her life. In her Hanover studio, Hermi.colours, she experiments with new recipes and colour combinations. Alongside art supplies, she uses plant dyes to colour both old and new garments. She is fascinated by the diversity of natural pigments and by their cultural context. Throughout history, colours have carried powerful symbolic meanings, reflecting social belonging, traditions and values. Through her work, she wants to raise awareness of the cultural origins and sustainable use of dye plants, and to show just how rich and diverse the world of natural colours can be.

It was particularly important to us to gather reusable and second-hand things for our table. The tabletop, stools, crockery, glasses and cutlery were all second-hand and brought by Esther-Marie Kröger. In her independent projects, Esther explores the social, economic and ecological dimensions of sustainability. In her building projects and private life, she asks how materials and objects can remain within cycles of use. She is an enthusiastic customer of architectural salvage centres and flea markets. In her teaching at Hochschule Hannover, she combines material cycles with her passion for gardening in the international course Flax from Scratch.

We were delighted that Rüpel, a restaurant in Hanover, supported us with its culinary preserves. The kitchen at Rüpel is based entirely on plant-based ingredients and follows a consistently vegan approach – uncompromising in quality, provenance and philosophy. They work with what grows in the region, often from regenerative agriculture or their own harvest. Wild herbs, pulses, heritage vegetables and fermented ingredients are at the heart of their dishes. There are no animal products – not as substitutes, but by choice. Instead, flavour is created through craft, time and knowledge: fermentation, smoking, reduction and drying. Packaging waste and long transport routes are consciously avoided; everything follows a closed, resource-conscious cycle. Kitchen scraps go into their own zero-waste compost and return to cultivation as humus.

The plant-based candles and wooden and paper objects for the table come from me

At the beginning of every product idea for ada there is an element of chance. Kerstin works with leftover materials such as wood, paper and wax from various businesses, transforming them by hand into new, sustainable objects. She combines her handmade pieces with pre-loved found objects, which she is always keeping an eye out for. Alongside working with her hands, this is her second passion.

Kerstin holds a degree in interior architecture and was co-founder of SNUG.STUDIO, a product design studio, from 2009 to 2016. Since 2016, she has been working as a Senior Visual Designer.

Anja Schnellbeck brought us a selection of delicious farmhouse cheeses and labneh. Anja has been making cheese for eleven years, gaining experience at various farm dairies along the way. For the past year and a half, she has been the cheesemaker at Kampfelder Hof.

Kampfelder Hof includes arable farming, a market garden, a bakery, a farm shop and, most recently, a herd of dairy cows, with the milk processed directly on the farm. The farm has been organically managed for more than 30 years. Its products are sold through the farm shop, a subscription box, a market stall and, for several years now, through a community-supported agriculture scheme.

Birga & Thomas Mazur supplied us with wonderful vegetables. PeKK is a permaculture farm specialising in market gardening using no-dig methods. The farm also has an orchard with berry crops and keeps free-range meadow chickens, geese and sheep. An agroforestry system is currently being established. PeKK’s vision is to create an oasis of biodiversity on 2.4 hectares using the principles of permaculture. A further 5.4 hectares are being developed into a special agroforestry area, with the aim of demonstrating that permaculture farming can be both economically and ecologically viable.

We fell at least as much in love with Lina Sternberg’s beautiful photographs as we did with the rhubarb and ginger compote with poppy-seed brittle she created for dessert. Together with Anja’s labneh, it was delicious. Lina creates visual worlds that tell stories about food, craft and sustainable brands. Trained as both a chef and a communication designer, she gives products a visual language that makes their origins and quality visible. Her work ranges from cookbooks to brand communication. At its heart are products made with care – from their origins all the way to the plate.

And there was wonderfully hearty rye-and-spelt nettle bread from Kathrin Schubert at her Vesperstüble bakery. She says she doesn’t really go to work. The bakery, the shop, sourcing the ingredients and the encounters that come with it – the exchange with other bakers, farmers and people who care about good food. All of it is her life. And what comes from it? Modern wholegrain sourdough breads. And, of course, sweet and savoury little things to eat by hand.