kartoffiennale ø
2026
heichelheim, germany
kartoffiennale emerges from this context and from the legacy of the Heichelheimer Kartoffelfest, a folk festival born after reunification that became a space where identity and community were negotiated during a period of transition. Rather than reconstructing that festival nostalgically, kartoffiennale asks how its legacy can be revisited today, amid shifting agricultural economies, climate concerns, and social change.
For its first edition, the project joins Heichelheim's annual public potato planting organized by Heichelheimer Kartoffel e.V., taking place directly on a potato field. The exhibition follows a month-long residency during which four international artists worked alongside farmers and factory workers, becoming embedded in local agricultural structures. At its center was a potato sorting facility, where workers contributed not as subjects to be represented, but as collaborators who directly shaped the projects.
The works ask what it means to consider the potato as alive — not merely as food or commodity, but as a body moving through cycles of cultivation, extraction, and regeneration. Across the projects, the potato appears as a social binder connecting people through work; as a living organism echoing the human body; as a meeting point between human labor and machine rhythm; and as a material capable of ongoing transformation.
is the closing exhibition of the art residency This Village is Not Yet Another Backdrop for Art!, Heichelheim.
Curated and organized by Ameer Masoud.
Project in cooperation with Heichelheimer Kartoffel e.V., Karland Agrarprodukte GmbH, ABLIG Feinfrost GmbH, and Thüringer Kloßmuseum Heichelheim.
Funded by Kreativfonds, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, 2026
artists
Difei Song
Krittaporn Mahaweerarat
Ámbar Luna Quintanar
Hussam Hasan
photos: hussam hasan
graphic design: difei song