How did cocoa actually make its way to Hamburg? What can we learn about the city’s history and the environment through cocoa cultivation?
By preparing a cocoa drink developed by Yolanda Gutiérrez together, you’ll experience a playful, sensory, and physical exploration of history, memory, and community. Together, we’ll cook, smell, taste, and share stories. An experience that engages all the senses and fosters connection.
Afterward, we’ll take a group “Cocoa Walk Performance” from URBANEO to Strandhöft. During the workshop and along the way, you’ll learn more about cocoa production and Hamburg’s colonial connections. Nearby stood the former Kaispeicher A, formerly known as Kaiserhöft, which once served as a storage and transshipment site for coffee and cocoa from colonial trade routes. After its demolition, the preserved clinker brick base became the foundation of today’s Elbphilharmonie.
The Cocoa Walk Performance combines movement, sensory experience, and collaborative exploration with questions about trade, colonial history, and the traces of this history that remain visible to this day in Hamburg’s urban landscape.
Important note regarding the location: It takes place at Urbaneo, on the waterfront on the Elbe side.
Yolanda Gutiérrez sie/ihr
Yolanda Gutiérrez (she/her) is a choreographer based in Hamburg. For many years, her artistic work has explored her own history of migration. From early cooking performances inspired by childhood memories, through projects in the independent arts scene, to large-scale productions at Kampnagel, she explores questions of identity, memory, and sociopolitical conditions. Since 2017, her focus has been on the decolonization of the city, space, and the body. This has resulted in performative audio walks that have been presented in Hamburg and at international festivals.