Melissa Korn

Melissa Korn is a programme maker who investigates the meaning of culture and identity through the lens of food. Food is the common denominator from which she allows programme participants to explore their differences and similarities. When she brings people together for a programme, she encourages active participation and strives to empower the speakers in their own way. This creates an exchange that lasts and from which change can arise. She recently revived the Johannes van Dam Prize, produced the campaign ‘What do you add sambal to?’ for Pan Asian Collective and created Culinary Roots together with Maureen de Jong: a 5-day program in which participants explore their roots in the former Dutch East Indies/Indonesia based on their family dishes.

De Jong and Korn both have an Indonesian background and founded Culinary Roots based on this personal quest. In this search they discovered how important it is not to be alone and to be able to exchange ideas. In the kitchen and in art they found a place to bring this to the imagination and share it with a wider audience.