Most videogames are played with a mouse and keyboard or a gamepad... But have you ever played using random objects like a banana or a pot? Well, come and try out some of the alternative controllers we have prepared to transform your playful experience!

This time, we are presenting our workshop as part of the second edition of Tijd voor de Wijk Festival, to be celebrated the 14th and 15th of June in the Mekkelholt neighborhood. Come by anytime between 13:00 and 17:00.
You will be able to revisit classic videogames, and also, to imagine new buttons and build your own controllers with the incredible and random material available.

the arcade-style soccer game Rocket League

the frenetic co-op multiplayer Overcooked 


DATE: Sunday 15th June
TIME: 13:00-17:00
LOCATION: 

 at Mekkelholt (at the end of Fazanstreet)
ENTREE : Free participation

Alt Controller Workshop at the Tijd voor de Wijk Festival

For this edition, we will watch the documentary 

  by Carol Mansour and then we will invite you to reflect on the clothes and symbols we wear—objects that hold meaning for us, bring us back home, or tell the story of our community. After the film, we will chat, share and explore embroidering a small motif that reminds us we are still resisting.

 is a documentary where twelve Palestinian women sit before us and talk of their life before the Diaspora, of their memories, of their lives and of their identity. Their narratives are connected by the enduring thread of the ancient art of embroidery.

Twelve resilient, determined and articulate women from disparate walks of life: lawyers, artists, housewives, activists, architects, and politicians stitch together the story of their homeland, of their dispossession, and of their unwavering determination that justice will prevail. 

Through their stories, the individual weaves into the collective, yet remaining distinctly personal. Twelve women, twelve life-spans and stories from Palestine.

Carol Mansour is an independent documentary film maker. She founded Forward Film Production in 2000 in Beirut, Lebanon. With over 25 years in documentary production, Mansour achieved international recognition for her films, with over fifty film festival screenings and official
selections worldwide. Carol’s work reflects her concern for human rights
and social justice, covering issues such as migrant workers, refugees, environmental issues, mental health, rights of the disabled, war and memory, right to health, and child labor. Carol is Lebanese / Canadian of Palestinian origin. She studied in Montreal, Canada, and is currently
living and working from Beirut, Lebanon.

Stitching Palestine (2017) Documentary Screening at Stitching to Resist

COLLIDERS is our monthly meet-up for playful makers, welcoming any creative regardless of the engine they are working in. At Colliders we brainstorm, present our progress, give feedback, enjoy creations and, of course, we play!

Colliders purpose is to develop a local network around indie/arthouse game makers and playful artists. With Colliders, we want to support each other and create more opportunities for collaborations and exchange. The meet ups are open to makers, enthusiasts, producers, artists, curators, and all people interested in game making.

Games test a wide range of player problem-solving skills. These challenges are the core elements of gameplay, carefully crafted by designers to support their creative vision. In the upcoming edition, we’ll take a closer look at games that engage player cognition and reasoning in diverse ways, featuring:

We have open slots for open screens and for short presentations.

Register here to let us know you are coming, if you would like to present and/or if you want to receive our newsletter

📅 WHEN: Thursday 19th of June
📍 LOCATION: GrensFrequentie, Muziekkwartier 3rd floor, Willem Wilminkplein 1, 7511 PG Enschede
🕡 TIME: 18:30 to 22:00
Free entrance!

COLLIDERS Playful Makers Meet-up

 and play everything you can play at a table: RPGs, board games, one shots, folk games, DnD and so on. We'll have 2 game nights per month, usually one on a Friday and one on a Saturday.

+ We try to always offer RPG tables, hosted by a member of our community or by a special guest, as well as board games tables.
+ Come alone or in group. Playing is a great way to make new friends ;)
+ Bring your favorite games to share them with us or discover new games from our collection.
+ 

 if you would like to play as a game master or test your game with us!
+ or 

 if you want to come and play (by letting us know you are coming, we can prepare the place in advance and save a place for you at the table of your choice).

💖 Come by yourself or with your friends, we’ll have plenty of games, great ambience and opponents to beat!

DATE: Friday June 20th
TIME: 19:00-23:00
PLACE: GrensFrequentie (Willem Wilminkplein 1, 7511 JE Enschede)
FREE participation 

TableTop Game Night

Sick&Sexy is our experimental adult film program dedicated to exploring erotic movies and the power of pleasure. Curated by Menelas from the Athenes Porn Film Festival. This time, Sickhouse celebrates one year of Sick&Sexy presenting an edition for the second time at the Roze Film Festival Enschede.

On June 27, 28 and 29, the second edition of the Roze Film Festival Enschede will take place: three days full of films by and with the LGBTQ+ community, including conversations with makers, a party and a delicious pink brunch. Concordia, Stonewall and Th!nk with Pride join forces to highlight the stories of the LGBTQ+ community with this festival, making them visible to a wide audience.

It may seem that films about the LGBTQ+ community are often about discrimination, rejection or rejection, with this festival we actually want to show that there is more than that. The films alone from the monthly Movie with Pride show that there is much more to the story. 


DATE: Friday, 27th of June
TIME: 23:30-01:00
LOCATION: Concordia Cinema, Oude Markt 15, 7511 GA Enschede
TICKETS: 8 €, Cineville card accepted!

Sick&Sexy at the Roze Film Festival Enschede

This event is postponed to the 128th of June (due to NS strike!) WE apologise for this new change.



DreamWalks are playful collective dreaming sessions hosted by artist and LARP designer 

. Between March and June, Sickhouse takes you to dreamy liminal places of Enschede to get into 

 and explore in between realities. You are welcome to join for one or more walks. These sessions will lead to the creation of a final ritual hosted in July.



In the future, a secret technology has emerged: the ability to enter and alter dreams. In this larp, you will play Dream Architects—a group of mind-hackers, employed by those who can afford to rewrite reality at its root. All this, in between working on your own private projects.

Parents, executives, and politicians come to you with requests: "Make her obedient." "Make him fall in love." "Make them afraid."
Most requests imply nightmares—they leave the deepest impression.
Each mission begins with a request. Together, you choose your target. You build the dream. You perform it—for one of you to witness and record. And then, you wait.

In time, a letter arrives. The client is pleased. Or horrified. The dream changed something. But was it what they wanted?
A surreal and philosophical LARP about power, morality, and how nightmares can become a tool in someone else's hands—unless we find a way to claim them back.

 (Make sure to get your on time, the number of spot available is limited)
You will receive an e-mail a few days before the walk with all the info and instructions.


🕐 Time: 18:30
⛲ Place: to be announced
⏱️ Duration: 3.5 hours
💰 

(including drinks and cookies)
🧣 To bring with you: comfortable clothes.

Get your tickets!

NEW DATE 28-06!! DreamWalk #4 Dream Architecture 

📣 🫣 🚧 While you want to hear about games, dreams and celebration, here some news about delays, money and toxic fiber…

🏠 We knew it, finding a space as a cultural organisation would be a test of our ability to adapt. And since we really started looking back in 2023 we developed quite some skills to defeat the challenges. Two years ago we grabbed all our things and moved out of our top floor space leaving a building scheduled for demolition 🏨 (of course it is still standing…empty). Then we got forced into a 🚚 📦 nomadic limbo for more than a year, after discovering the temporary space that was given to us was standing on rotting foundations 🏚️ . And we worked that out with the wonderful support of so many local partners! (eternal love ❤️‍🔥).

While hosting our hoping events, we secured multi-year funding 💰🎉 for our unique program 🕹️🎞️ 🔉 and imagined multiple business plans ✖️ ‼️ ➰ to make ourselves fit in potential spaces. It seemed hard enough to find a new location, fighting in a real estate world where culture often loses to profit. But we made it! We worked out a deal (thanks to

) to afford commercial rent, signed a lease and we really believed May would be the beginning of a new era for us. We finally had a home again, a space for our caring community, wonderful playful artists, game-makers, queer and engaging people… ✨ 🎉 👐

… 🔥 💥 But... Welcome to level expert where the boss is ugly, sneaky and it eats money! Welcome to ASBESTOS ! 😰 ☠️ 💩

We wanted so much to be home, to paint our walls, moving in our colourful chaos, and opening doors this September. Instead, we discovered that the new location hosts this infamous wonder-material from the 60’s, once praised for insulation and now known for... giving people cancer.

We wish we could share different news, telling you about the arcade corner 💚 we will set up, the new sign for our cinema 🧡, the games 🩷 we are planning to showcase, the artists 💜 we are so much looking forward to working with…
But today we needed to share this before hopefully soon share the concrete steps in front of us! We’ll definitely need your help, we believe what we are trying to do is beautiful, relevant, sick and necessary. We won't be opening in September as planned and we’re not yet sure when we can open...

Sickhouse always loved challenges, may this one be the final boss before welcoming you all! 🥷 💪 🙅‍♀️ 🧞‍♀️ 🏋 🦄 🌈


Sickhouse won't yet open in September

SICKHOUSE is a PLAYFUL ART SPACE presenting games, interactive art and participatory projects to look critically into the (digital) transformation of our society! 

Frontpage

On Saturday, May 24, the Ultimate IndieMash playful contest was broadcast live from Enschede to the world! Ten contestants showcased their projects through creative and humorous performances, and then joined each other for a chaotic, joyful play session led by none other than the Game Goblin.

And finally, the winning project was... 🥁🥁🥁 

: an open-source electromechanical game console with a wonderfully odd display, designed for creating and playing circular video games. Fully conceived and built in Argentina by 

Best of all, we will have Ventilistation at the next Overkill Festival! Where we will be able to talk with its creator, Alecu, and play some spinning games. If you're curious, remember to come to The Overkill, celebrated every year in Enschede, where you'll find our exhibition of alternative games and playful art.

🌐 Learn more about Ventilastation here

Ventilastation: the winner of the Ultimate IndieMash


Are you between 16 and 25 years old, and have you always dreamt of making your own short movie? Join us in this two-week Summer Film Camp! 



🎥 Open to young, curious minds eager to dive into the world of DIY filmmaking. You will learn about scenarios, storyboard, decors, filming, acting, editing, sound design and much more! 

✨ Together, we will make a short film from beginning to end. It will be experimental, it will be collective, and it will be full of improvisation! The finished movie will be premiered at 

, Sickhouse Short Film Festival in September.

🎬 You can sign up by sending an email with a short motivational letter/video/animation to Aike, where you tell us a bit about yourself, your favourite movie, what you like about films and what you are looking for in the Film Camp. The application deadline is the 16th of June. 




July 14th - 27th 
In and around Enschede
€ free! 
Sign up before June 16th to aike@sickhouse.nl



Please note that Sickhouse can't provide a place to stay or travel costs

Ben jij tussen de 16 en 25 jaar oud, en heb je altijd gedroomd van je eigen korte film? Doe mee met deze twee weken durend Summer Film Camp!



🎥 Het programma is open voor jonge, nieuwsgierige mensen die gemotiveerd zijn de wereld van DIY (doe-het-zelf) filmmaken in te duiken. Je leert over scenario’s, storyboards, decors, film, acteren, editing, sound design en meer!

✨ Samen maken we een korte film van begin tot eind. Vol experiment en vol improvisatie! De uiteindelijke film gaat in premiere tijdens het KO(O)RTS Short Film Festival in september.

🎬 Je kan je aanmelden door een email met een korte motivatie (text, video, animatie) naar Aike te sturen, waar je een beetje over jezelf vertelt, je favoriete film, wat je zo tof vindt aan films, en wat je verwacht van het filmcamp. De deadline om je aan te melden is 16 juni!




14 - 27 juli
In en rondom Enschede
€ gratis! 
Meld je voor 16 juni aan via aike@sickhouse.nl



Houd er rekening mee dat Sickhouse niet in een overnachtingsplek of reiskosten kan voorzien.

SICKHOUSE FILMCAMP - Make Your Own Short Movie

Sickhouse is proud to present the selection for Ultimate Indie Mash! Save the date of the show : 24th May accessible online! 

An immersive game created with twine, confronting the player with the role of passivity in the current aggressive system.

Body Focused Repetitive behaviour is a small game about a weird stim, nail biting, playing with your hair, picking at scabs... and ADHD

Outer Plays Eszter (she/they) & Joanna (she/they) - 

Have you ever found yourself elbow-deep in a sewer? Or followed ants disappearing into a hole? But most importantly, have you ever lost something that was important to you? Then you and Leah have something in common. "Something to Reach For" is a short interactive fiction game. To play, all you need is a mouse and some decision-making brainpower.


An experimental narrative game to look into the lives of others. Inspired by the experience of the makers the game reflect on isolation and depression in times of remote work.


Find the seven sanctuaries created by the mysterious ‘S’ and discover the untold stories and memories, the need for a safer world and the potential for healing. The game wants to inspire reflection about grief, identity, crying, human touch and rituals.

https://planning.goodcompany.be/nl/producties/plum

The Shaman, The Outsider and the Diet of Worms 


Multi-medium experience, presented as a collection of in-universe materials centred around the book 

The Shaman, the Outsider, and the Diet of Worms

, an autobiography of an anthropologist visiting a remote village. This includes the book itself, a republication with a preface, and a wiki page made 400 years after it was published. It is up to the player/reader to decide what parts of these materials, if any, are truthful.

👉 

Turns out, exploding a guy has consequences. Corporate spies Zoë and Gabe have messed up. There's only one thing they can do: escape to an alternate universe. But running can only get you so far. An interactive episodic story that shifts between comic, game and animation.

👉 

Ventilastation is the first game console from Latin America. A large fan spins a bar with lots of LEDs and a tiny computer, creating an odd circular display where games literally run at 600 RPMs. Players control the spinning action with a hacked testing lab dashboard, a submarine-grade gamepad or even a dance-dance mat.

👉 

https://ventilastation.protocultura.net/en/

Playful Systems LLC Jonah Warren (he/him) 

A fast-paced, two-player local multiplayer painting game. Two players compete on a shared screen, each armed with a mouse, a blank canvas, and a few simple paint tools. Each round, players select an abstracted version of a famous painting from art history. Players race to copy the painting as quickly and accurately as possible.

alpha_rats (he/they) & GLOR1A (she/they) 

An ongoing live A/V and video game project exploring different pathways for collective participation, using an afro-futurist virtual world as a stage for live broadcast and performance.

👉 

Ultimate Indie Mash Selection

After a year and a half of being nomads, on May 1 we will finally receive the keys to our new location at Oldenzaalsestraat 128. This will be our home for the next four years, and we are bursting with excitement about the new era ahead.

For five years, Sickhouse inhabited the third floor of the WARP building at Stationsplein, before being evicted due to plans for a housing project that has yet to be launched. Sickhouse was without its own physical location for 19 months (to be exact), during which time we continued to hold our events thanks to the support of friends and colleagues from the cultural circuit in Enschede, who generously lent or rented us their spaces and helped us in various ways to continue our programs.

Thanks to this support, our monthly events (TableTop Game Nights, Colliders: Playful Makers Meet-up, Sickhouse Cinema, and Stitching to Resist), our playgrounds (interactive exhibitions with guest artists), and our special events (like KO(O)RTS Short Film Festival, the Summer Film Camp, and The Overkill Festival) could continue while we searched for a new home. A thousand thanks again to Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Concordia Cinema & Kunstruimte, Het Vestzaktheater, DesignLab, GrensFrequentie, B93, Performance Factory, and many more.

It wasn't easy, but finally, an opportunity opened up. Last October, we signed the lease for Oldenzaalsestraat 128 — a building that housed a pool hall for many years — which will now become Sickhouse's new home.

 After receiving the keys, the next challenge will be fitting out the space: rebuilding our small cinema, stage, exhibition area, and bar. We will start hosting events already in May, but we will continue adapting the space to meet our community’s evolving needs.

We don't have a date for the official opening of the new location. But we will keep you updated on the progress we're making in this space that, like our previous location, aims to be a safe, fun, very pink space, where everyone can find a place and feel at home.

Sickhouse's New Location

KO(O)RTS is back in 2025!
The Short Film Festival of the weird, wicked and wonderful, organized by Sickhouse, returns for its second edition in collaboration with 

. To be held in Enschede, Netherlands the 26 & 27 of September.

KO(O)RTS is a vibrant 2-day short film festival. It provides a platform for (emerging) local and international filmmakers to showcase their work, celebrate creativity and connect with each other. At the same time, the program offers the public an alternative, never-before-seen and fun selection of films, presented with care, multisensory setups and
playful ways. 

In addition to the various screenings, the festival includes workshops, a filmmakers meet-up, and an awards ceremony. In this way, we strive to create a vibrant event that brings together both filmmakers, film lovers and celebrates the art of short film.

 and submit your film before May 1st (read the terms for applying on the open call page).

News
Sickhouse won't yet open in September

News
Ventilastation: the winner of the Ultimate IndieMash

News
SICKHOUSE FILMCAMP - Make Your Own Short Movie

News
Ultimate Indie Mash Selection

News
Sickhouse's New Location

News
KO(O)RTS Short Film Festival OPEN CALL

Upcoming Events

Gallery

NewsSickhouse won't yet open in September

NewsVentilastation: the winner of the Ultimate IndieMash

NewsSICKHOUSE FILMCAMP - Make Your Own Short Movie

NewsUltimate Indie Mash Selection

NewsSickhouse's New Location

NewsKO(O)RTS Short Film Festival OPEN CALL