Call for Proposals for a Women Artists’ Collective<\/p>\n\n
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\u2019 town of Kalbe has been working to bring \u201clife back into the buildings\u201d through art and culture. <\/p>\n\n
Through a wide variety of formats, it addresses the consequences of demographic change. The theme of this year\u2019s Lichtbl\u00fctenfestival will be \u201cHOME. HOMELAND.\u201d After all, having a home of one\u2019s own is no longer a lasting ideal, but is more threatened than ever. The central question is: What does \u201chome\u201d mean? What does \u201chomeland\u201d mean? And what can \u201chomeland\u201d be today? <\/p>\n\n
A house can be a shelter, a home, a place of memories and security. But it can also be missing, lost, or under threat. Home can be a place\u2014but it can just as easily be a person, a landscape, a smell, a song, a language, a memory, a community, or a shared activity. <\/p>\n\n
At the same time, we are living in a world where the supposedly safe \u201chome\u201d 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? <\/p>\n\n
For the Light Blossom Festival on October 10, 2026, numerous small, large, fragile, luminous, surprising, and personal houses\u2014created by individuals and groups from the town of Kalbe\u2014are 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. In collaboration with various groups and people from Kalbe, houses, homes, and huts will be built, and existing houses will be reimagined.<\/p>\n\n We’re interested in a wide variety of shapes and materials:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n The resulting works will be displayed throughout the public spaces of Kalbe (Milde)\u2019s 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. 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\u2014for 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. 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 \u201chome\u201d\u2014in all its facets and fractures\u2014becomes 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 Lichtbl\u00fcten Festival to pause, explore, and reflect on their own ideas of home and belonging. <\/p>\n\n General Terms and Conditions Please send applications to: opencall@kuenstlerstadt-kalbe.de <\/p>\n\n Questions: Tel: 039080-2959 or info@kuenstlerstadt-kalbe.de <\/p>\n\n\n
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