COMMODITY / COUTURE

A sensory installation on Ghana's cocoa: handcrafted, undervalued, irreplaceable.

1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair · Somerset House, London

15–18 October 2026

A Special Project of the Midunu Institute

From a £4 chocolate bar, the farmer who grew the cocoa receives 6p.

The Room

You cross a threshold of cocoa scent into a room built from the material itself. Inside booths sewn from cocoa sacks, farmers speaking about the work, the pay, the inheritance. Film from the farms where the beans begin moves across the walls. At the centre, a hollow cocoa pod cast in brass by Ashanti artisans in Kumasi, made by the lost-wax method that has carried their craft for centuries. And in your hands, a cup of single-origin Ghanaian drinking chocolate, served warm.

The Making

Everything in the room is made in Ghana. The film is shot in the cocoa farming communities the chocolate comes from. The voices are recorded on the farms, in the farmers' own languages. The brass pods are cast in Kumasi by master artisans in an edition of fifteen, each resting on a cradle. The drinking chocolate is made by Selassie Atadika from cocoa sourced through cocoa cooperatives.

The installation practices its own argument: everyone who makes it is paid for what they know. This is the first public work of the Midunu Institute, which exists to keep African culinary knowledge living: cooked, taught, and carried forward. Commodity / Couture is where that work steps into the world.

The Founding Circle

A small circle of patrons is bringing this work into existence: funding the film crew on the farms, the farmer voice archive, and the brass edition. The circle closes 31 August 2026.

The Circle

In formation, July 2026.

Visit

Commodity / Couture opens at 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Somerset House, Strand, London, 15–18 October 2026, with a VIP preview on Thursday 15 October.

Commodity / Couture — Selassie Atadika at 1-54 London 2026