8–13 October / Casco HQ
Open daily from 12:00 onwards. Program outline provided below.
The Harvest Festival is conceived as a week-long closing program for our exhibition Hidden Arts: What do we make when no one sees us. As we explore alternative economies of collectivity, shared resource building, and arts organizing, it’s time to celebrate the shared resources harvested during this period and beyond.
In the context of Arts Collaboratory and lumbung experiments, harvesting is understood as a form of collective writing that facilitates continuous learning through various sensory experiences. It is both a generous and generative practice. Harvesting involves the artistic recording of discussions, meetings, gatherings, and studies, where harvesters listen, reflect, and depict these processes through their own perspectives, forms, and artistic practices. Harvesting has no fixed structure; it may vary according to each person’s preferences. Equally, following the seasonal cycles, harvesting also serves as a way for ecosystem members to gather the fruits of their shared efforts and prepare for the next period.
The Harvest Festival aims to explore the role that radical artistic imaginations can play in the transition toward new economies centered on collectivity. It brings together a diverse group of artists and practitioners from Utrecht, the Netherlands, and our extended translocal ecosystems, using their imagination, friendships, and resources to redefine transformative understandings of the economy as a practice of living well and supporting each other.
Through a range of presentations, radio transmissions, mini-assemblies, study meetings, cooking sessions, and workshops, the festival seeks to engage with real-world alternatives to mainstream business and economic models anchored in principles of individual profit, competition, and productivity, while assessing their potential to be reproduced, translated, and/or amplified.
You are all welcome to join us; we hope to see many of you around!
Program
Arts Organizing in Ecosystemic Ways
Giulia Menegale x Casco Art Institute study session
Tuesday, 8 October, 14:30–16:00
This final session of the Hidden Arts study program explores models of instituting that prioritize ecosystemic care as they relate to the commons. The session takes the collaborative essay Creative Institutionalism: (Art) Experiments at the Fringes of the State by the IMAGINART research group as its starting point. Building on their reflections on the promises and challenges of collective institution-building, and more specifically, their insights into art commoning strategies within creative institutionalism, participants are invited to think practically by using Casco Art Institute as a site for experimentation. As understood in this context, art commoning “entails the establishment of institutions that are self-reflexive, flexible, and responsive to people’s needs, ultimately caring for those they serve (often active members) rather than adhering primarily to bureaucratic logics.”
Silent Rebellions: The Arts of Navigating Migration Policies, with Ishani Chatterjee
Wednesday, 9 October, 15:00–18:00
In this session, Ishani Chatterjee presents her harvested knowledges on the migration challenges faced by self-employed cultural practitioners in the Netherlands, focusing on strategies of survival and solidarity. On Saturday, 28 September, Chatterjee, along with Casco Art Institute, organized Silent Rebellions: The Arts of Navigating Migration Policies, a workshop aimed at collectively brainstorming ways to navigate the grey areas of visa policies and exploring how collaboration can help maintain a supportive and accessible international community. The workshop featured presentations by Mutual Support Platform (Dung Nguyen, Loyuen Ming, and Julie Yu), Lorenzo Gerbi, Aline Hernández, Marianna Takou, Kaan Hiçyilmaz, and Klodiana Millona, with interventions from J.Chen, Koen Dijkman, Ned Kaar, Lydia Markaki, Maja Simišić, and Anne Mul. This session builds on the workshop’s insights, continuing the reflection on strategies to create infrastructures of support in the face of migration policies.
Transmitting Solidarity: for Palestine and Lebanon, with Stranded FM
Thursday, 10 October, 18:00–20:00
A solidarity radio event featuring in-person collective readings of June Jordan’s writings on Palestine and Lebanon, as disseminated through pamphlets by Learning Palestine. Through their work, Learning Palestine practices alternative ways of spreading knowledge, operating outside the censorship and constraints of social media and corporate networks. Utilizing their self-distributable texts alongside group readings and the spontaneous organizing structure of community radio, this event aims to transmit a voice of solidarity to dismantle the narratives that sustain the ongoing genocide inflicted on Palestine as well as further escalations across the region, including Lebanon. During the show, participants are invited to contribute thematic songs and field recordings to create a collaborative soundscape that will accompany the reading of these solidarity texts. The broadcast will be guided by the team of Casco Art Institute and streamed live on Stranded FM.
Study Meeting: The Arts of Shop-Keeping, with Daeun Lim, Krista Jantowski, Benjamin Li, and lumbung kios
Friday, 11 October, 15:00–18:00
This program brings together a diverse group of artists, cultural workers, and initiatives to exchange ideas on alternative economic practices in the arts, focusing on shop-like structures and experimental distribution models. The emphasis is on the potential of shops and marketplaces not only as sites for the circulation and exchange of goods but also for sharing knowledge, resources, and tools, as well as fostering relationships. For a long time Casco has been experimenting with ways to activate diverse economies at the intersection of arts and the commons. Over the past year, we have taken the time to rethink our structures and approaches to generating different economies for and with the ecosystem. This has been done in dialogue with networks and initiatives we are part of, such as Arts Collaboratory and lumbung Kios, as well as through the launch of our own Casco Kiosk in the context of the current exhibition. We now seek to continue reflecting on what a shop within an art institution can be, and how we can practice new ways of doing economies together that sustain collective forms of well-being.
lumbung kios x MAFA HKU x Myvillages – A FAIR!
Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 October, 12:00–18:00
During the weekend, you are invited to come and hang out with the lumbung kios x HKU MAFA x Myvillages networks while supporting their work! At the fair, you will find an exciting selection of merchandise, including prints, t-shirts, soaps, postcards, as well as publications, books, and artworks from our trans-local ecosystem members. There will also be food, music, temporary tattoos, and plenty of nongkrong or hanging out. On Sunday, HKU MAFA also presents their special program Art Fairing as a Practice which includes a number of workshops and other activities run by students (see full program below).
The fair expands on the lumbung kios experiment in setting up alternative arts economies operating within and beyond institutional infrastructures. lumbung Kios is a network of decentralized and self-run Kiosks aimed at selling products at various locations. Its mission is to establish a sustainable model for generating income through the sale of goods produced by lumbung members, artists, and their local ecosystems. Inspired by the Feral Trade model pioneered by artist Kate Rich, it explores a slow-trade mechanism that encourages collective practice, decentralizes distribution, and delves into alternative economies. Through direct exchange, lumbung Kios facilitates resource-sharing and encourages social interaction across its mobility network, providing physical and online opportunities for engagement and critique.
Art Fairing as a Practice, Sunday program
Art Fairing as a Practice is a project that employs collaborative organizing structures and donation-based alternative economies such as trueque, upcycling, and collective pot systems to support artists and their work. It was first launched during Uitfeest 2024 at Casco Art Institute with the support of Mutual Support Platform, thriving in collaboration with alumni and current MAFA students. Now, the time has come to rethink and expand this collaboration in a second iteration, in connection with the While Kitchen-ing festival, organized and curated by the second-year MAFA students at Casco.
Art Fairing as a Practice will showcase works, publications, tattoos, food, and sonic performances, combining daily practices and creating a shared pot of individual and collective actions. This initiative aims to cultivate communities and enhance accessibility to art while recognizing and respecting the artistic production process and the time and effort invested by each artist, all within a framework of solidarity.
The organizing team consists of MAFA alumni and current MAFA students. The artists include Fatemeh Asiri, Aisha Hachem, Sohrab Kashani, Athina Koutsiou, Changli Luo, Mirella Moschella, Li Xiandong, Mark Torochkin, Janneke Venema, and CHEN Ran. Nene Moné joins as a guest artist.
Workshop, Please dance happily and freely, hosted by Sophia.Xue.Wang, 11:00–12:30
In the first 30-minute dance and body movement session, we will explore different forms of dance: dance as body language, dance as spirituality and ritual, and dance as a symbol and discipline of the body. We will also challenge ourselves to dance to various rhythms. Participants are invited to share their history with dance, their experience of the body, and stories of dancing in public spaces.
Max. 18 participants. No dance background is required, not too intense or fast, open to all ages. The discussion will be conducted in English but participants are highly encouraged to express themselves through both their bodies and native languages.
Drawing Test, hosted by Li Xiangdong, 13:45–14:45
”I invite all of you to join the Drawing Test. You are not only expected to be a student, but also a teacher, manager, or security personnel. It will be an immersive role-play experience, where the role you choose to play depends entirely on you—just like in life.”
Workshop, Performing Casco, by Sohrab Kashani, 15:00–15:45
Performing Casco is an experiential workshop that invites participants to engage with Casco Art Institute through movement and sensory exploration. Using guided prompts, participants will respond to the space around them, allowing their bodies to interpret its unseen qualities and shifting atmospheres. Through a series of improvisational exercises, participants will explore the boundaries between self and space, creating moments of connection, interaction, and transformation.
Performance Tiny, Fluffy, Sweet (work-in-progress), hosted by CHEN Ran, 16:15–17:00
”In this performance, I share my ongoing, unorthodox research on ‘cuteness,’ which began with my fascination for cute animal videos during the pandemic.”
Music Performance, Nene Moné, 17:45–18:15
Moné is a mestizo music producer known for crafting immersive soundscapes that merge their cultural roots with modern elements, fusing the natural environment with synthesizers and self-produced rhythms. They also work as a transdisciplinary researcher dedicated to advancing the social and environmental justice of Indigenous peoples. Their work addresses issues such as the impact of ongoing colonialism, extractive practices, land dispossession and grabbing, greenwashing projects, and food and cultural assimilation.
Sobremesa, 12:30–15:00
Conversations with artists and researchers about their practice and research: Changli Luo from 12:30 to 12:50 and Nene Moné from 17:00 to 17:30. In between there is music by DJ Soh from 13:00 to 15:00.
The Harvest Festival is financially supported by Stichting De Zaaier, Municipality of Utrecht, and DOEN Foundation via Arts Collaboratory.
Image description: The Harvest Festival graphic identity as designed by David Bennewith / colophon.info featuring the title and harvest scans in the background.
