MinkaLab is a family-based and collaborative project that since 2014 has been creating spaces for intercultural learning, territorial regeneration, and knowledge exchange in the mountains of Risaralda, Colombia.

The project is mainly driven by:

Gabriel Vanegas

Artist, designer, researcher, and cultural organizer focused on territorial regeneration, community art, agroecology, and appropriate technologies.

Katharina Klemm

Video artist, ceramic artist, yoga instructor, and seed guardian. Her work integrates wellbeing practices, ceramics, art, and biodiversity care.

Tatiana Vanegas

Programmer and collaborator in projects related to fair trade, collaborative networks, and knowledge-sharing platforms such as Blogchange.

Laurent Jouvin

Engineer specialized in renewable energy and sustainable technologies applied to ecological and community-based processes.

Over the years, MinkaLab has grown through a broad network of friends, collaborators, artists, farmers, workshop facilitators, researchers, and organizations participating in gatherings, residencies, collective work sessions, and community-based processes developed within the territory.

Since 2014, we have hosted gatherings, workshops, festivals, and processes focused on agroecology, bioconstruction, food sovereignty, art, biodiversity, ancestral science, alternative education, and community wellbeing.

We currently collaborate with collectives and organizations in Germany, as well as with Corporación TulpayApu in Colombia, strengthening international networks for cultural exchange, territorial regeneration, and community learning.

We are also connected with regional networks and initiatives related to agroecology, biodiversity conservation, native seeds, and local economies, including:

• Seed Guardians Network
• SPG Risaralda — Participatory Guarantee System and Trust Label
• Green Businesses Network Risaralda — CARDER
• UTP Farmers Market
• Risaralda Network of Civil Society Nature Reserves (RNSC)

We understand MinkaLab as a living collaborative network where different disciplines, cultures, and forms of knowledge come together to imagine and build more regenerative and nature-connected ways of living.