On the weekend of October 21st and 22nd WASTELAND Festival hosts a series of workshops about waste, creating an accessible and engaging program for visitors regardless of age or background.They engage with the pressing issues of our time, such as mounting textile, food, electronic and plastic waste, in a meaningful and playful way. In these workshops you can learn to repair or reuse old materials, prevent things from turning to waste or discover how to create new objects out of existing ones.

Join us and TrashUre Hunt on Saturday morning to collectively build a sculpture from used plastic packaging and parade it through the city! You can also spend the afternoon at the clothing swap and the textile upcycling workshop by artists and fashion designers Dragadina and Jip van der Hek. 

On Sunday you can take part in our food saving exercise with Maidie van den Bos and make delicious food from products that could otherwise go to the bin. Straight after you can learn from Jamie Nee how to create your own worm hotel to recycle your unavoidable food scraps. You can also end this heroic day by learning about data degrowth and saving some space on your digital devices with Leonardo Scarin.

The exhibition “Streams of Waste” explores complex trajectories of physical and digital waste flows, and the material, social and environmental impacts that they create. These flows have different degrees of visibility and public awareness. While plastic trash on the streets catches our eyes, the large amount of microplastics that enter our bodies remain unseen. ‘Streams of Waste’ addresses the intended and unintended effects of pollution locally and globally to show its effects on communities and ecologies. 

The exhibition presents different takes on this problem by eight international artists and collectives from Argentina, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, Denmark, Kenya, The Netherlands, and The United States. It takes micro and macro perspectives in tracing current waste flows and explores their possible connections to our uncertain futures. 

Wasteland’s transdisciplinary LAB offers a dynamic two-day program focused on waste and water. It invites makers and thinkers working at the intersections of art, technology, ecology, and social studies to collectively learn about, reflect on,  and act upon waste in our water streams. Through talks, workshops, and interactive research sessions we approach these topics from a multitude of perspectives.

‍Location: Centrale Bibliotheek Den Haag, The Grey Space in the Middle, The Hague

The LAB brings together expertise, peer-to-peer learning, and exchange to inspire collaborations between artists, academics, activists, and cultural practitioners and stimulate the development of new projects engaging with local and global waste flows.In this edition, we follow waste moving in, through and by water. Starting from the North Sea, which for centuries suffers and channels pollution, the LAB looks into ocean currents transporting waste around the globe, legal rights of water bodies, (neo)colonial shipments of discarded plastic, diplomatic and activist battles for environmental justice, and creative engagements with water pollution and waste crisis. For two days, we get together to engage with experts, share our knowledge, our ongoing research and projects, fascinations and hopes, put our hands in water, and our minds in the thick of things.

In this edition, we follow waste moving in and by water. Oceanographer Erik van Sebille shows how computer simulations help trace the movements of virtual waste particles in the ocean, using techniques from archaeology and statistics, while sonic artist Harpo ‘t Hart invites us to listen to the ocean. Anthropologist and social scientist Elena Burgos Martinez makes us conscious of the geopolitical power relations that move waste streams from the Global North to the Global South. With artists and designers Martina Muzi, Shahar Livne, and Karin Fishnaller, we revisit the geo-design exhibition Junk: All that is Solid melts into Trash, and learn how artistic research and design thinking can critically reflect on waste as the consequence of a growth-centered economy.  Researchers and artists Alice Twemlow, Sissel Marie Ton, and Lucy Cordes Engelman dive deeper into hydrofeminist perspectives on waste and invite the participants to think through alternative knowledges and mythologies as a way to explore the relationship between humans and non-humans.

Collective thinking, reflection, and making sessions interlude these presentations throughout the two days of the LAB.

The program is tailored to practitioners and students in the fields of art, design, activism, ecology, and social sciences and offers opportunities to deepen their knowledge, join an engaged community, and start new collaborations and friendships. It takes place for two days between 10:00-18:00. Participants are expected to be present during the entire program to foster active engagement. If for some reason it is impossible for you to join us for the entire time of the LAB, please indicate this in your application form.

Dates: 28 – 29 October 2023
Spoken language: English
Times: daily 10:00-18:00
Location: Centrale Bibliotheek Den Haag, The Grey Space in the Middle

All spaces are accessible by wheelchair and mobility scooter.The participation fee is based on a ‘pay-what-you-can’ principle, where participants are offered to choose between three price classes: €25 - €37,5 - €50, based on their financial ability. Vegan lunch and drinks are included in the fee on both days. We are aware that it is not possible for everyone to pay this amount. If you would like to participate but are unable to pay the fee, please contact us via katya@collective.wasteland.nl so we can search for a solution together.

Please find more information about the program and how to sign up here.
Deadline: October 16th.

Throughout the festival, we organise a variety of engaging and accessible events that contextualise the theme of waste streams from different angels.  By day, we take the festival to the streets of the Hague to fuse art and activism in creative interventions. By night we come together to deepen our insights through keynote speeches, presentations, film screenings, performances, dinner sessions and club events.
Join us on this tangled and fascinating journey!

With contributions by: Marina Otero Verzier, Werner van der Zwam, Loma Doom, RJM Van der Heyden, What You See is What You Get, Sophia Bulgakova, Hans Hannah, Donatas Tretjakovas, TrashUre Hunt, Soyun Park, Jaeha Ban and Seunghee Ha, Leiden University College, Cardboard Lamb, Pelagic Ambient.