Four students of the Curatorial Programme of de Appel Amsterdam are living and working in m4gastatelier while co-organizing the damdam Harvest Festival #1
The first edition of the damdam Harvest Festival builds on 25 years of Lumbung-inspired experimentation, culminating in documenta fifteen. In 2025, collectives will come together to explore sustainable economies, collective infrastructures, shared practices, common resources, and core values. At the heart of this approach is a commitment to the process—prioritizing relationships, collaboration, and care over the production of isolated artworks or exhibitions.
The curatorial vision behind the festival is rooted in the politics of friendship, interdependence, trust, and collective joy, with a strong connection to Amsterdam and its local communities. Rather than working in isolation, participants turn toward each other to strengthen the bonds that sustain their practices.
As part of this collaborative process, resources and needs within the ecosystem are mapped, creating a shared foundation for future projects. From this groundwork, several self-organized working groups have emerged, addressing shared urgencies such as community, land, economy, printing, publishing, pedagogy, documentation, and archiving.
The damdam Harvest Festival 2025 offers a space to share these ongoing processes and the spirit of Lumbung practice through nongkrongs (informal gatherings), workshops, film screenings, discussions, dinners, and parties. It asks: What kind of future becomes possible if we center our work around sharing, collective rhythms, and solidarity?
The festival will take place primarily at de Appel, which serves as a nurturing infrastructure for building relationships and networks beyond the walls of the institution. Additional activities will take place at various venues in and around Amsterdam. One of the key locations is m4 gastatelier, an artist residency in the Tetterode building. This space functions as a site for living, working, printing, publishing, studying, and gathering. It enables slower, more thoughtful forms of exchange—welcoming visitors for workshops, screenings, or simply to spend time together. In doing so, it becomes part of a broader exploration into alternative institutional models and shared infrastructures.
