Domo Stands for Artistic Freedom – Liberation Day

Across Europe, artists are working in a context marked by political pressure, war, and shrinking civic space. Freedom of expression, movement, and collaboration is not evenly shared. It depends on where you are, who you work with, and the conditions around you.

On 5 May 2026, Domo Home for International Cultural Collaboration opens a space to explore this reality.

Marking Liberation Day in Amsterdam, the programme brings together artists, cultural practitioners, and organisations working across borders to reflect on what artistic freedom looks like in practice today. Not as an abstract idea, but as something negotiated through daily choices, relationships, and constraints.

Hosted by Domo’s resident organisations, including the European Cultural Foundation, DutchCulture, the Prince Claus Fund, Cultural Emergency Response, and the Ukrainian Institute, the day connects individual experience to wider questions about how freedom is sustained and challenged across Europe.

The programme moves from conversation to collective reflection. Artists working internationally share how they navigate collaboration, funding, and values across borders. Participatory sessions invite audiences to engage directly with questions of responsibility, borders, and belonging. A shared meal brings people together around the values that shape cultural exchange.

Running alongside the programme, the exhibition Plastic Sea, Perfect Storm by The Europeans offers another lens on the same question. Through the work of photographer Rob Hornstra and writer and filmmaker Arnold van Bruggen, it captures a Europe where rising nationalism, pressure on democracy, and environmental crisis are reshaping everyday life.

Together, the programme and exhibition point to a simple reality: culture brings people together, but the conditions that make that possible need to be actively held and defended. This is an invitation to step into that conversation.

Click here to register and sign up.