In the next phase of CONVIVIUM, solutions developed in different parts of Europe will begin to travel. Approaches developed in Norway will be tested in Portugal, while solutions developed in Portugal will be explored in Norway. This cross-testing is central to the project: CONVIVIUM brings together different European locations, using their differences in landscapes, food traditions, histories and communities as a resource for experimentation and learning.

As we prepare for this exchange, we are looking not only for similarities, but also for differences. And in this early search, some unexpected connections begin to appear.

These photographs provide a simple example. The colourful bottle crates were photographed during our first consortium meeting in the Coimbra region in Portugal in January 2025. The large plastic boxes were photographed in Lofoten during our consortium meeting in June 2026, where we encountered the region’s fishing communities, food production and living food heritage.

Wine and fish. Portugal and Norway. South and North. Different products, climates and food cultures — yet remarkably similar material infrastructures: durable, stackable containers circulating between producers, products and places.

Perhaps cross-testing starts exactly here: by noticing how apparently different food cultures sometimes solve everyday problems in surprisingly similar ways.

And perhaps the most interesting connections are the ones we were not looking for.