ABOUT

Cordova web is an art project that uses social practice to highlight the importance of neighborhood food markets and how they relate to community interdependence and care. This project was created in collaboration with neighbors and community artists: Rossie and Lisa, of the Excelsior/Crocker Amazon neighborhoods.

The pandemic has shed light on the need for community support and restructuring our systems of care. As the pandemic has progressed, community members have struggled. Food bank lines have increased and corporate grocery stores and pharmacies have closed. MUNI routes have been cut, and gas prices have increased substantially, causing more inaccessibility to food and necessities. Now more than ever there is a necessity for neighborhood markets as a space and resource of community building and essential goods during emergency situations.

Situated in District 11, Cordova Market sits on the border of the Excelsior and Crocker Amazon neighborhoods. This area has remained largely untouched by gentrification and speculative realtors, and continues to be a working-class neighborhood with a majority of persons of color (POC) and immigrant residents. We are proud to have a large Asian, Pacific Islander and Latino community that contribute to the multicultural vibrance of this area. Cordova Web highlights the lived experiences of these San Franciscans that are largely absent from cultural narratives of the SF Bay/Silicon Valley region.

The spatial and social limitations highlighted during the pandemic forced us to ponder what and who is essential for human life. Neighborhood food markets provide access to essential supplies in emergency situations and thus provide safety and cultivate a culture of care. This web of connection and care is often invisible. Cordova Market provides a physical intersection for these encounters of reciprocity and exchange. Cordova Web aims to cast a wide net of influence and transform neighborhood relations between people and physical space. It is the first step in a larger project of building relationships between food sovereignty advocates, artists, community organizers and neighborhood residents through community art practice.