Couve e Coragem (Portugal, 2011-2013)
In Lisbon, 80 hectare of vacant land has been occupied by the city’s citizens and is used for kitchen gardening. The urbanites are not doing that out of idealism or to make a political statement, but out of sheer necessity: as a result of poverty, it is one of the few ways to obtain food, or to generate their own income through the sale of produce from the land. For her series Couve e Coragem (‘cool and courageous’), for two years Lioba Keuck followed the people who cultivate plots of land between busy arterial roads and apartment buildings. Many, originating mostly from the former Portuguese colonies, had once left their home in hope of a better life in the city. Now that this hope has vanished, and the social safety nets have fallen away due to the crisis, their vegetable garden is their only ally in the struggle for a dignified life.