Since 2012, people from London, Cape Town, Pretoria, Istanbul, Madrid, Paris, and Berlin have opened their fridges to the whole world, and this is the result so far―a colorful archive of fridges and their proud owners. These people are of different personalities, nationalities, cultures, traditions, ages, and social statuses and Juncker tried to capture the link between these factors and the contents of these people’s fridges.
“So what does this tell us about the people who use these fridges? Do we have a special system filling it? What belongs in our fridges and what do we eat? Is there any difference or similarity between different cultures, countries, ages, or flat sharing? Do we keep leftovers and how do we store them?” These are just a few of the questions Juncker was interested in when she started the project.
Letting someone into your fridge can be a very intimate moment as it can reveal more than just how often you eat your fruit and vegetables. It can show how well-organized and tidy you are, if you are vegetarian or vegan, and speak about your lifestyle in general. It seems inaccurate to judge people based on the contents of their fridge, but when you look through the list and spot the little details, you can kind of guess to whom they might belong. The biggest fridge packed with all sorts of pre-cooked meals belongs to a grandma, a secret compartment with chocolate probably prepared to spoil grandchildren belongs to an elderly German couple, a minimalist man with long hair has a fridge full of broccoli and other goods, a young couple from busy Paris has barely anything inside. If you are curious about what's inside other people's fridges, this ongoing series is right up your alley, but being able to see fridge owners in their usual environment makes this social experiment so much more interesting.
The project called “Show Me Your Fridge” is particularly important to the artist as she has become very invested in the global topics of food, modern trends of responsible handling, and waste.
According to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, around one-third or 1.3 billion tons of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted every year. Food waste in households often occurs due to poor purchase and meal planning, excess buying, confusion over “best before” and “use by” labels, and poor storage. Consequently, any food losses add up to water, land, energy, labor, and capital resources, whereas extensive and needless production causes global warming and climate change. We can do better, starting with our own fridges!
