Tomatl - the red gold | Christina Schultz

Tomatl - The Red Gold is an artistic research project that explores the tomato as a global commodity, tracing its historical and contemporary conditions of cultivation, circulation, and consumption.

The project questions the unstable notions of identity and nationality attached to the tomato a common food item and a highly politicised object, shaped by systems of labour, trade, and industrial agriculture. Through its trajectories, the work reflects on how everyday consumption is embedded in complex networks of extraction, migration, and economic value.

The term “red gold” points to the tomato’s status as a commodity whose production involves invisible forms of labour and uneven global relations.

Process

The project unfolds through research into the historical, economic, and social conditions surrounding tomato production and distribution.

This includes an investigation of agricultural practices, labour structures, and global trade systems, as well as the cultural meanings attached to the tomato across different contexts.

Rather than presenting this information directly, the project was conceived through a workshop focused on the preparation of tomato preserves (conservas), engaging participants in collective practices of cultivation, transformation, and care.

This process connects everyday domestic actions with broader questions of labour, sustainability, and political responsibility, situating food preparation as both a practical and critical activity.

Forms

The research is translated into performative, visual, and material forms:

Performance — a live work structured through narration, the preparation of tomato preserves, and the activation of visual material Drawings (series of 37) — acrylic ink drawings of different tomatoes, forming a visual sequence through which the narrative of the performance unfolds Conservas (12 tomato preserves) — produced during the process and activated within the performance, reflecting practices of preservation, care, and transformation

These forms operate together as a narrative and material system, in which cultivation, representation, and preservation intersect.

Context

The project was developed as part of a broader inquiry into value, material culture, and the political dimensions of everyday objects.

It connects to other works exploring circulation and exchange, such as Objects and Desires, extending this investigation into the field of food and agriculture.

Context

The performance was developed as part of the Grand Tour 18, curated by Clara Garí, as the fourth stage of a trajectory towards CeRRCa.

Credits

Concept and direction: Christina Schultz

Collaborators: The tomatoes used for the preserves were donated by Rose’s orchard, linked to the house that now hosts the residency directed by Pau Cata Marlés.

Some of the drawings