Owen Griffiths

The Vetch Veg Project is a participatory and interdisciplinary social artwork in association with ADAIN AVION and is commissioned by Cultural Olympiad Wales and Marc Rees.

Coordinated by artist Owen Griffiths on the historic site of the Vetch Football field, an urban utopia will be created in the Sandfields, the heart of Swansea, in collaboration with the local residents.

This area of Swansea is an old community, which is also home to many new people to the city. In this area alone there are primary schools, churches, local businesses, Chinese supermarkets, a Mosque, a Territorial Army base and a Prison. Until recently the Sandfields was also home to the Vetch, the iconic football stadium that, in 2012 would have celebrated its centenary.

Vetch Veg will be transforming the pitch into edible land, providing the residents and the surrounding community free space in which to grow Vegetables. Temporary vegetable gardens will be created with raised beds, were local residents will have the opportunity to work together, growing produce, keeping bees and chickens etc. All plots will be free to individuals, families or organisations living or based in the Sandfields. Vetch Veg has secured a proportion of the Vetch’s larger development specifically to grow food and provide the community an opportunity to transform the way we eat. Reconnecting with the process of growing food and self sufficiency is becoming increasingly significant as food prices rocket and financial cuts increase. It is also is in some way a shift to a more entrepreneurial and creative society. Reusing, reshaping and rethinking resources such as the Vetch to have a temporary use as an edible land. Increasing air miles via global food transportation is having a crippling effect on the environment, what better way to draw attention to this issue than by using a recycled plane without wings as a catalyst for growing your own.

From August 2011 the site will be active as groundwork is completed to ensure the project start date in September. The duration of the project will be up to 12 months, with a grand finale; the Vetch Veg Flower and Produce Show scheduled for June 2012 that will take place around AVION’s nesting site (in front of the National Waterfront Museum) and a communal culinary celebration before the plane embarks on its journey across Wales.

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