Trans-local Haystacks

HAYSTACKS //|\\ HEUHAUFEN //|\\ SWYLJE

Kathrin and Wapke from Myvillages were involved in organising and making numerous haystacks in the summer of 2024: in London, in Stuttgart and in the Netherlands (Utrecht, Rotterdam and Warmond).

HAYSTACKS //|\\ HEUHAUFEN //|\\ SWYLJE is a trans-local working place for co-production and co-reflection on rural practices, lived experience and embodied knowledge in urban settings.

Kathrin started Haystacks as a series of casual get togethers to talk about rural topics in urban places in London. The first hay making haystack event followed on the Walthamstow Marshes in east London in May 2013, and has since become an annual communal public event on the former Lammas land.

The “Heuhaufen” at Künstlerhaus Stuttgart in June was on invitation by Stephen Wright and Tamarind Rosetti, who have taken on the artistic directorship there. „Farming Everything” is the motto and practice that shapes their curatorial work, and hay was made snd brought to the main gallery as material, artistic practice, sculpture, furniture, more-than-human environment and a reason to discuss relationships between shifts in contemporary art and in agriculture.

Wapke started organising "Swylje" in April 2024 in Utrecht. “Swylje” is Frisian for gathering the hay. In our school they are informal dinners and conversations with art and agriculture workers and researchers to dig deeper into rural undercurrents, distinct and shared knowledge on and in Dutch polders.

Haystacks/Heuhaufen/Swylje will continue over the coming years as a trans-local programme of the and please be in touch if you want to connect with haymaking and haythinking🌱

Thanks to Ida Fabrizio, Rasheeqa Ahmad from hedege Herbs and ranger Luke Boyle for making the London haystack possible and for the amazing music on the marshes.

Herzliches Dankschön in Stuttgart an Stephen Wright & Tamarind Rosetti , Ida Bomm, Jochen Detscher’s support in the print studio, and Manuela Obermeier, Bernhad Lehr, Daniel Richter and Stephanie Bollinger Casale or the hay.

Swylje is a co-operation with Meta Knol from Warmond and Casco Art Institute in Utrecht. And it all started last April in the HQ in Rotterdam.