Clublokaal x HumDrumPress with Catwings
From 26 May to 1 June 2025, Clublokaal in Breda hosted the first-ever collaborative residency between Clublokaal and HumDrumPress, welcoming Berlin-based collective Catwings as invited guests. This residency took place within the framework of the Expansive Publishing Strategies research project by HumDrumPress, and Clublokaal’s OPEN HOUSE programme exploring radical hospitality.
Focusing on the trajectory of Alternative Knowledge Cycles, the week-long residency engaged deeply with interrelational knowledge-sharing and collective autonomy. Catwings brought their ongoing research into self-organised cultural practice, prefigurative politics, and strategies of collective self-governance into conversation with the residency framework, creating a rich space of co-learning and experimentation.
Highlights of the week included a three-day workshop (27–29 May) facilitated by Catwings, where a small group of participants engaged in a performative reading and writing circle. Together, they studied and speculated on abolitionist artistic practices, while developing scores and notations toward a processual publication in collaboration with invited co-conspirators.
On 28 May, Catwings joined Sakmez’s monthly gathering for an open evening of story-sharing, mingling, and knowledge exchange. This informal event created a vibrant social moment within the residency, welcoming both regular visitors and new guests into the fold.
The residency concluded with the Open Book event on Saturday 31 May. This public gathering offered an in-depth look into the practices of Catwings, Clublokaal, and HumDrumPress, and served as a space to share insights, outcomes, and working methods developed during the week. The event included a communal dinner, score-making exercises, and contributions from invited speakers, creating a lively and generous environment for conversation, reflection, and future imagining.
This residency and event series was made possible with the kind support of Stimuleringsfonds.
31 May 2025 not reading to recite,
but reading to rehearse
On Saturday 31 May 2025, Clublokaal hosted the Open Book event “not reading to recite, but reading to rehearse” as the final public moment of the weeklong residency between Catwings (Berlin), HumDrumPress, and Clublokaal. The event brought together collaborators, participants, and visitors for an afternoon of collective reflection, shared practices, and convivial exchange.
Functioning both as a celebratory closing of the residency and a continuation of the Expansive Publishing Strategies research project, the Open Book created a space for public activation of the collaborative processes that unfolded during the week. Informal presentations introduced the practices of Catwings, HumDrumPress, Clublokaal, and the research framing that informed the residency.
Central to the gathering was a collective reading of the script not reading to recite, but reading to rehearse – an annotated reader produced during the Conspiratory Study Group, a three-day workshop facilitated by Catwings. Participants of the study group were present and joined the public in reading and reflecting on the work, inviting everyone to rehearse new possibilities for collective organising and abolitionist artistic practices. Copies of the reader were distributed freely to all attendees.
The evening continued with an Open Discussion on the future steps for Catwings’ forthcoming publication with HumDrumPress and an Open Conversation centred on how to cultivate and sustain interrelational networks of knowledge and care.
The programme culminated in a communal dinner, where conversations extended around the table in a more informal and interpersonal setting. Over shared food and drinks, participants exchanged ideas, reflections, and aspirations for future collective practices.
About the Collaborators
Catwings
Catwings is an initiative by Steph Joyce and Theresa Zwerschke, whose practice centres on self-organised hosting, communal learning, and collective action. Their work explores conditions and possibilities of art beyond commodification, fostering spaces for mutual learning and shared authorship. Their Collective Autonomy Reading Group meets bi-weekly at cittipunkt, Berlin.
Clublokaal
Clublokaal is an open and welcoming art space in Breda, the Netherlands, dedicated to collective practices, resistance, and collaboration. It serves as a hub where makers meet, exchange, and build forms of long-term, self-organised cultural work grounded in solidarity and care.