La Caoba (Larry Bonćhaka und Sopo Kashakashvili)

La Caoba, 2025-ongoing

Performative installation with mixed materials

Dimensions variable

With contributions by Anna Pezzoli, Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson, Elene Gelovani, Lizi Kashakashvili

Realised thanks to the support of Sonja Prochorow, Samuel Götschin, Leonie Englert, Romildo Olympio

Courtesy: the artists

La Caoba is an off-the-grid global movement initiated by Larry Bonćhaka (b. 1994, Accra, Ghana) and Sopo Kashakashvili (b. 1994, Tbilisi, Georgia) dedicated to environmental restoration, sustainable community development, and economic empowerment. By integrating large-scale afforestation projects with community-led initiatives, La Caoba aims to create self-sustaining ecosystems where people and nature thrive together.

A space full of life is unfolding at the Frankfurter Kunstverein. A shared dining table anchors the room, a place for breaking bread and building bridges. Workshops, research-based artistic contributions, and materials focusing on agriculture, as well as the trade and transport of food, bring the space to life over the course of the exhibition And This is Us 2025. We collaborate with local farmers, environmental foundations, and fellow creators who, like us, are deeply rooted in the rhythms of nature, reimagining the environment and food as sites of healing and hope.

Our presentation features external contributions from Anna Pezzoli, Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson, Elene Gelovani, and designer and architect Lizi Kashakashvili and was realised with the support of Sonja Prochorow, Samuel Götschin, Leonie Englert, and Romildo Olympio. Together, we transform this space into a living ecosystem—a shared ground for dialogue, action, and collective dreaming.

A shared hunger for change brought us together. Through the universal languages of music and cooking, we found not just common ground, but a shared heartbeat. Trust in each other’s ideas and projects grew organically, weaving a tapestry of collaboration that became a collective. By uniting people with diverse passions, we learned to research together, create performances, stage interventions, give talks, and build something greater than ourselves—a family.

Yet, the questions that drive us remain urgent and unyielding: how can art become a living, breathing force for transformation? What kinds of communities are we shaping when we gather people across divides?

Our work always begins with the personal—our own stories, our autobiographies. We exchange ideas, dig into archives, and engage with objects, architecture, and space as sites of activation. In a world fractured by division and fear, our resistance is rooted in the practice and sharing of our heritages. For us, resistance is not a grand gesture but an intimate act—a shared meal, a conversation, a seed passed from hand to hand.

With La Caoba, our project and movement, we turn our focus to Ghana, where deforestation is a crisis demanding immediate action. This is not just an environmental issue; it is a fight for survival, for heritage, for the future. Your presence and support are not just valuable—they are vital. Join us as we share the flavours of Georgia and Ghana, weaving ancestral healing into a global tapestry.

Food is our weapon of resistance and renewal. By sharing preservation techniques, recipes, and spices, we dismantle borders—both

physical and metaphorical. We reject categorisation and separation, inviting you instead to “root-sharing” ceremonies and collaborative art practices that celebrate connection over division.

Trade, exchange, and commerce have always been the lifeblood of human survival and community. We reclaim these acts, infusing them with purpose. This exhibition is not just a display—it is a call to action, a platform for change.

La Caoba (mahogany in English) is more than a tree. It is resilience embodied. Native to the tropics, mahogany has been shaped into furniture, boats, and musical instruments, its strength a testament to its value. Yet, this very strength has led to its decline. La Caoba is also our son’s middle name, a symbol of growth and legacy. By supporting our project, you contribute to a reforestation and sculpture park project in Prampram, Ghana, Greater Accra Region—a living monument to regeneration.

Text by Sopo Kashakashvili and Larry Bonćhaka

WHY LA CAOBA NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT

Nestled in the coastal town of Prampram, Ghana, this precious stretch of land is rich in biodiversity, cultural heritage, and natural beauty. Named after the majestic mahogany trees (caoba in Spanish) that once flourished here, this land has been a sanctuary for wildlife, a source of medicinal plants, and a vital green space for the community.

Over the years, unchecked development and land encroachment have threatened the existence of plant and soil life. Forests have been cleared, wetlands drained, and wildlife displaced—leaving this ecological treasure at risk of being lost forever.

But there’s still hope. We are dedicated to fighting to fully acquire and protect this land, ensuring it remains a haven for nature, a carbon sink, and a legacy for future generations. By securing this land, we can restore its ecosystems, promote sustainable farming, and create a model for community-led conservation.

This is more than just land—it’s our heritage, our environment, and our future. With your support, we can replenish the land with plants, water and animal life. Our target is to fully acquire the 1 acre land, restore the soil, plant windbreak trees such as acacia, train caregivers and dig a well for water which is non existing in this area. To move the reforestation project forward we need the amount of 25,000 euros.

OUR GOALS AND COMMITMENTS

  • 1 acre land acquisition – 15,000 euros
  • Soil restoration with compost and nitrogen fixing plants – 2,500 euros
  • Planting windbreak trees (acacia, oak and mahogany) – 3,000 euros
  • Horticulture training course for caregivers (3 months) – 2,500 euros
  • Create access to water for community, plant life and wildlife – 2,000 euros

With your support, by purchasing La Caoba natural products and donating to the Go Fund Me, we can be rest assured of giving new life and inspiring the people of Prampram to join in the movement.

Donate today and be part of this vital mission!

GoFundMe-Link: https://gofund.me/fb6c6e79

Thank you!

 

Anna Pezzoli

Aliveness, 2025

Soybean sprouts perform the choreography titled Aliveness inside an aquarium.
Directed by the pump – the pulsing heart that keeps the rhythm by puffing air – they spin in quiet loops.

The gaze is drawn in, seduced by transparency, safe in its dry place.
These generative seeds are stuck in circulation. Is spinning a strategy of survival? What if we stop? Would rooting be more generative? Would stillness allow new forms of growth?

Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson

Kanzo Caves, 2025

Kanzo Caves form part of my topographical exploration of the micro-worlds of foods. “Kanzo” in Ghanaian culinary tradition refers to “charred rice”- which is formed at the base of saucepans. The digital terrains for this Virtual Reality exploration are developed from a combination of Digital Elevation Modelling and Microscopy of modified foods. I modify foods made of rice, wheat, and millet into different crystallisation structures, which are reverse-engineered into digital forms. This body of work merges and critiques genres of still-life and landscape to deal with shared morphogenesis and ecology of things at varied scales, inclusive of microbial life and uncanny forms. The terrains also feature the bodies of booklice, which form part of the ecosystem in breaking down the foods I experiment with.

 

Larry Bonćhaka and Sopo Kashakashvili collaborate as an artistic duo, blending culinary practices, theoretical research, and improvisation at the heart of their work to create immersive, participatory experiences. Both are founding members of the artist and architects collective “commune6x3” and graduated at Städelschule in Frankfurt, Bonćhaka in 2023 and Kashakashvili in 2024.

Their performances and interventions have been presented at Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden e.V., Wiesbaden (DE), Opelvillen Rüsselsheim (DE), Theater der Welt, Frankfurt am Main (DE), Kressmann Halle, Offenbach am Main (DE), Diamant Museum of Urban Culture, Offenbach am Main (DE), Documenta 15 with commune6x3, Kassel (DE), Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt am Main (DE), and Royal Parade Grounds, Kumasi (GH). They have also created interventions in public spaces, hosted dinner performances, worked on fashion shows, and in 2024, initiated a mobile sculpture park project in Kumasi (GH).