Launched on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of de Appel's Curatorial Programme, the Summer School brings together curators, artists, activists and educators with a focus on land, ownership and collectivisation as themes and practices.

Ownership of land is central to struggles around the environmental crisis, land grabbing, social housing, gentrification, settler colonialism and many more. In the current context of late capitalism, land has become a commodity. We see political and social movements around the world struggling for free and fair access to land and its resources. Artists have been at the forefront of and part of these struggles, embracing and experimenting with shared ownership and different forms of the commons. In the Summer School we will learn together about artistic and curatorial ways of engaging with and defending land and place, whether as cultural workers, institutions or communities.

The programme is in two parts, Land: Places of Belonging (17-20th July) is organised by the team of de Appel and will include visits to squats in Amsterdam, seminars with curators and artists on curating and institutional commons. The second, Land: Edge Effects (24-27th July) will be organised by the 2023 Curatorial Programme Fellows Melissa Appleton, Ka-Tjun Hau, Monika Georgieva and Chala Itai Westerman. Taking place in locations on the western edge of Amsterdam (Voedselpark and other Nieuw-West locations), a series of encounters with artists, curators, collectives and architects will ask what can be learnt from working at the margins – of the city, of dominant economic and cultural models and of the human world.

Some of the participating conveners in the summer school include Ivo Schmetz (artist and designer, co-founder of OT301, Amsterdam Alternative and Vrij Beton), Gabriella Riccio (artist, activist and researcher, member of Institute for Radical Imagination), Marco Baravalle (researcher, curator and activist, member of Sale Docks and Institute for Radical Imagination), Reza Afisina (ruangrupa), Nour Abuarafeh (artist and tutor at DAI), Marina Christodoulidou (curator and tutor at DAI), Müge Yılmaz (artist and co-founder of Four Siblings), Serda Demir (activist and co-organizer of True Counterpower), Iliada Charalambous (artist and co-organizer of True Counterpower), Vida Rucli (co-founder Robida Collective), Natasha Hulst (co-initiator of Voedselpark Amsterdam and programme director of European Land Commons at the Schumacher Center for New Economics), Iris Poels (nature educator and programme maker at Voedselpark Amsterdam), Tamalone van den Eijnden (PhD student at University of Twente and researcher at Voedselpark Amsterdam) and Trijntje Hoogendam & Erik Geurtsen (farmers and owners of ecological care farm De Boterbloem). With special thanks to Josefina Barcia.

This is an invitation to artists, curators, writers, activists, and educators, cultural practitioners from all disciplines and curious individuals who are interested in working together.

Please send your application to Curatorial Programme Coordinator Maria Nolla; maria@deappel.nl by Sunday May 26th midnight. Based upon the submitted documents, around twelve candidates will be selected and informed by mid-June. Only completed applications will be considered. We kindly ask to submit one single PDF document (max. 3 pages), in English, including the following documents:

• Cover page containing the following information: Name, current address, email and telephone number.
• A short introduction about yourself and your practice with links or images of past and present projects (max. 300 words).
• A short letter of motivation stating why you want to attend the summer school (max. 300 words).
• The de Appel summer school aims to enable participants and contributors to learn from each other, we invite applicants to submit an idea for a conversation, a lecture, a screening, a walk, a workshop, or even a recipe – anything you would like to share or offer to the group over the course of the summer school. (max. 300 words).

Summer School fee
Each participant will be asked to contribute a fee of €120 which will be used to provide breakfast, lunch, refreshments and drinks throughout the Summer School. If you are not based in Amsterdam but would like to attend, please note that you will need to make your own accommodation and travel arrangements.