Call for Proposals for aWomen Artists’ Collective
Kalbe, with a population of approximately 2,234, is a small town that still has good infrastructure (elementary and secondary schools, 3 daycare centers, 4 supermarkets, doctors, and many clubs). The historic district has a vacancy rate of about 30%. Since 2013, the artists’ town of Kalbe has been working to bring “life back into the buildings” through art and culture.
Through a wide variety of formats, it addresses the consequences of demographic change. The theme of this year’s Lichtblütenfestival will be “HOME. HOMELAND.” For today, one’s own home is no longer a enduring concept, but is more vulnerable than ever. The central question is: What does “home” mean? What does “homeland” mean? And what can “homeland” be today?
A house can be a shelter, a home, a place of memories and security. But it can also be absent, lost, or under threat. Home can be a place—but it can just as easily be a person, a landscape, a smell, a song, a language, a memory, a community, or a shared activity.
At the same time, we are living in a world where the supposedly safe “home” is becoming more fragile: due to climate change and natural disasters, war, flight, and displacement, as well as political and social changes. What gives us a sense of stability when the familiar four walls can no longer be taken for granted?
For the Light Blossom Festival on October 10, 2026, numerous small, large, fragile, luminous, surprising, and personal houses—created by individuals and groups from the town of Kalbe—are to be built in the old town of Kalbe (Milde) and at the Kulturhof. We are looking for a collective of female artists to develop and facilitate a participatory artistic process together with the people of Kalbe and the surrounding area.
The Idea
In collaboration with various groups and people from Kalbe, the goal is to build houses,
homes, and cabins, and to reinterpret existing structures.
We’re interested in a wide variety of shapes and materials:
- small clay houses displayed in the windows of the Old Town residents
- Small paper houses that are hung on string lights and made to glow
- Handcrafted and sculpted miniature houses
- Community houses made of driftwood and covered with fabric and paper, providing space for the group
- delicate indoor sculptures made of clay, paper, metal, and found objects
- textile houses, tents, and huts
- makeshift and fragile wooden dwellings
- Houses that promise shelter but have barely four walls
- Houses that show just how fragile a home can be
- Houses that sleep, that breathe
- Houses That Are Being Charmed
- Houses that dream of a new world through their own eyes
- Houses in disrepair that are being turned into castles
- Houses that tell stories of personal memories
- Houses that embody what people associate with “home”
- Homes that are built collaboratively and, as a result, become places of community themselves
The resulting works will be displayed throughout the public spaces of Kalbe (Milde)’s entire old town, as well as at the Kulturhof. It is particularly important to us that the buildings be illuminated, transforming the town into a walk-through installation that is both poetic and contemplative.
A participatory process
We are looking for a guided artistic process that takes shape in collaboration with the local community. The artist collective is to offer workshops and open studios, working with various groups in the city—for example, children and youth, families, older adults, clubs, initiatives, immigrants, and long-time residents. In doing so, existing ideas from the community can be taken up and artistically realized together.
Possible questions for the workshops could include:
Where do I feel at home?
What do I need to feel at home?
What should I take with me if I have to leave my home?
Can a person be a home?
Can a landscape be home?
What smells, sounds, or songs are part of my home?
What makes a house a home?
When does a home become unsafe?
What does “home” mean to people with different life stories?
What does a house that offers protection look like?
And what does a house look like that could collapse at any moment?
The answers don’t have to be expressed in words. They can be built, shaped, sewn, drawn, written, collected, connected, illuminated, and displayed.
Home as a Multivoiced Place
The project is specifically designed to highlight different perspectives on home. It has a special connection to Intercultural Week 2026. The project aims not only to explore the intersection
of various cultural, familial, and personal experiences, but also to make these experiences tangible through practical and artistic engagement.
The installations and performances can come together to form a kind of shared, new urban landscape: many individual stories, materials, and ideas of home combine to create a new place. Perhaps this will give rise to a city where there are not just houses, but where “home”—in all its facets and fractures—becomes visible. Public space as an exhibition venue. At the end of the process, the resulting works will be on display in the historic district of Kalbe (Milde) and at the Kulturhof. The exhibition is conceived as a walk-through installation in the urban space. The illuminated houses are intended to create a special atmosphere, particularly in the evening hours, and invite visitors to the Lichtblüten Festival to pause, explore, and reflect on their own ideas of home and belonging.
General Terms and Conditions
Artist’s FeeArtist collective: €4,500 Material budget: €2,000 Accommodations in Kalbe can be provided. The specific schedule and the number of workshops will be determined in collaboration with the selected collective and the local partners coordinated internally. Whenever possible, the workshops should take place at different locations and with different groups in Kalbe.
Questions: Tel: 039080-2959 or
Application deadline: August 30, 2026