What is the value of a drop of milk? What is the cost of an onion? What does hunger mean? For her new solo exhibition in Bern, Peruvian artist Daniela Ortiz addresses questions of food sovereignty.
A Drop of Milk examines how access to food is shaped by imperial legacies, corporate monopolies, and economic warfare. It situates hunger within a planetary system in which food items are no longer primarily cultivated and shared, but instead monitored, withheld, rationed, commodified, and artificially enhanced. Through the eyes of Ortiz, it becomes clear that access to food is used as a means of control or, at times, as a form of punishment.
The show features twenty-five newly commissioned Bauernmalerei paintings depicting cases of sanctions and blockades, or established monopolies, particularly targeting milk production. Another body of paintings and an installation of a puppet show reimagine the fable of Jack and the Beanstalk, a children’s tale in which Ortiz critiques the role of Swiss corporations in imposing transgenics, monopolies, and agrotoxins across the so-called Global South.
The exhibition concludes with an experimental documentary filmed in Switzerland and Venezuela that focuses on local communes and their production of milk and meat. By portraying these communal forms of organization, the documentary explores how grassroots initiatives confront scarcity and sanctions, building autonomous infrastructures of survival and care. It portrays milk not only as nourishment, but as a symbol of sovereignty: produced, shared, and defended against the violence of today’s neo-liberal economies.
Daniela Ortiz (*1985) was born in Peru and lives in Cuzco. In her artistic work, she critically examines nationality, racism, class, gender, and other power structures. Solo exhibitions include Kunsthaus Zurich, Fondazione Sandretto de Rebaudengo, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Vannabe Museum and group exhibitions at 60th Venice Biennial curated by Adriano Pedrosa, MUDAM Museum Luxembourg, MACBA Barcelona, Ludwig Museum Köln, Palais de Tokyo Paris, Kunsthalle Wien, Kunstverein Hamburg, Museo Reina Sofia, among others. Her work is in the collections of Kadist Foundation, CNAP (CollectionNationale des Arts Plastiques de France) FRAC Pays de la Loire, Fondazione Sandretto de-Rebaudengo, MACBA Barcelona, Museo Nacional ReinaSofia, Wagner Foundation Boston, Kunsthaus Zürich, among others.
The exhibition of Daniela Ortiz is kindly supported by Gesellschaft zu Ober-Gerwern.
