S.T.W.iTCH 

Join the Winter Gather Together with artists Rizqita Naherta, ROTS and Not Just A Collective. We will explore the threads that connect us to our grandmothers (f/x/m). 

For centuries, crocheting and knitting have been powerful strategies for survival, resistance, and solidarity. Stitches, patterns, and materials are passed from hand to hand, from generation to generation. By translating handicraft traditions into printing techniques, we stitch and print ourselves onto the work of our predominantly female ancestors. Their stories are deeply woven into our fibres.  

Join us in knitting a fabric that, through militant witches, textile prints, androgel and drag kings, forms a queer, multi-nair and kaleidoscopic pattern for future stories. Take part in the crochet workshops, join the drag parade or let loose at Queer Punk Karaoke! 

Meanwhile, city resident Frank Koolen will perform and exhibit work at Omstand and Plaatsmaken. Arnhems Stadsatelier is a residency project of Plaatsmaken, ArtEZ, The Hub, and Theater aan de Rijn. For this edition, Plaatsmaken is collaborating with Omstand. 

The Winter Gather Together is part of H0Ha, a programme curated by Sunflower Soup. Read more about it here. 

PROGRAMME (all parts free and walk-in)

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9
10:00 - 12:00 | Community space De Nieuwe Hommel: Sustainable Textile Atelier
with Not Just A Collective. (Location: De Wiltstraat 6, Arnhem). Bring your project and join to knit, crochet, or repair or renew your clothes or fabric items. 

19:00 - 21:00 | ‘Nurturing the fire of our militant witches’  
Teach-in by Rizqita Naherta & Dewi Sofia. Using the archival materials of Api Kartini, the activation will involve a teach-in on the installation that looks into the Indonesian militant women’s organization Gerwani. It will touch upon their role in women’s liberation, their anti-colonial advocacies, and their forced dispersal in 1965 leading to a revolutionary void in women’s movement of post-reformation Indonesia. You can sign up and read more about the workshop here.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12

19:30 - 21:30 | Presentation of Zevenblad #9
with various readings by poets and artists. 

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13

13:00 - 19:00 | Granny Square, Tranny Stitch: workshops by ROTS and Not Just A Collective 
Learn the basics and reshape the traditional ‘granny stitch’ by connecting our crochet work together. 
Complementary Patchwork Bags: Bring an heirloom or object from your family as the basis for making an intuitive pattern for a bag from the textile patchwork printed by Not Just a Collective.

13:00 - 15:30 | Arnhem Draait Door 
To celebrate the festive reopening of Molen de Kroon, Hospitality Club and kids from the neighbourhood have printed flags that will spin on the mill’s blades. 

Monomill III printing workshop 
Afterwards, Krista and Mirka from Hospitality Club will add a new layer to the billboard inspired by the mill. Anyone is welcome to join! 

17:30 | EXHIBITION OPENING
with food & drinks  

20:00 | AFTERPARTY at De Kurk (location: Steenstraat 68, Arnhem) 
Together we’ll walk to café De Kurk, where drag kings Phallic Patrick & Alfa Hoer from Mates & Mascara will perform, and where you can enjoy Queer Punk Karaoke by Laura Lavender. 

During the day, artistic researcher and maker Katinka de Jonge will be present with the performative installation Talking Backwards, in which everyone is invited to slow down and think out loud. 

At Omstand: 15:00 - 17:00 | opening STUDIO FIASCO 
A group exhibition conceived by Frank Koolen, consisting of collaborations with guest artists Marijke van Warmerdam, John Baldessari, Lieven Segers, Matthieu Reijnoudt, and ‘Troupe’ (a collective installation by 3rd-year HKU Fine Art students). 

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS

Not Just A Collective is an Arnhem-based publishing practice collective that aims to foster knowledge accessibility and cultural participation. They are a group of multidisciplinary artists, researchers and designers from Italy, China, Argentina, South Korea, Türkiye and The Netherlands who live(d)/work(ed)/stud(ied) in Arnhem. Our team members are Lu Lin, Alessandra Varisco, Santiago Candelo, Jiahui Feng, Heike Renée de Wit, Femke Kersten, Han Gyeol Kim, Doğa Gönüllü and Euna Lee. Positioning ourselves as a collaborative group, we aim to create an inclusive platform for cultural activities and cross-disciplinary collaborations to contribute to the cultural diversity in Arnhem, and beyond.

Rizqita Naherta  is a cultural worker, organiser, and archivist-researcher working collaboratively to nurture archival knowledge of Indonesian queer-marginalized communities and women’s resistance movements that are prone to be forgotten, misapprehended, and lost. Their practice manifests in the assemblage of various living archives built from old scattered media and the stories told in the everyday. Giving homage to their elders that came before them, and recirculating their spirit in the contemporary to counter historical amnesia. They often produce installations, pedagogical activations, relational performances, and community-based events.

ROTS (they/them) = mermaid x otter multimedia poet dichter = closer theoretic trans terrorist. 

Katinka de Jonge is an artistic researcher and maker who questions the role of collectivity, polyphony and authority. 

Frank Koolen is a visual artist with a versatile practice in which improvisation and play have a major role. 

Met dank aan / Supported by Mondriaan Fonds & Gemeente Arnhem