Just in #1
The exhibition Just In #1 presents ten archival items that have been added to the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning in recent years. They are the first fruits of a collection policy that is increasingly focusing on current social themes, feminist practice and the decolonisation of the collection. Work is shown, for example, by the Vrouwen Bouwen Wonen [Women Building Housing] network, by interior architect Marijke van der Wijst and Surinamese architect Hannes Nooitmeer.
Het Nieuwe Instituut collects archives in the field of Dutch architecture and urban planning. While it manages the archives on behalf of the government, it follows its own collection policy. Since the value and meaning of a collection change over time, this collection policy has to be constantly re-examined. Gaps in the composition of the collection, such as archives representing women and the former colonies, are slowly but surely being filled.
In addition to the archives of architects and design firms, the collection increasingly includes the collections of architecture critics, social organisations and informal networks, such as squatters and emancipation movements.
For the Just In exhibition, a selection has been made from the acquisitions of the past few years. The first results of the changing collection policy can be seen here. Contact with the donors came about in various ways. For example, a widow got in touch about the material of her deceased husband who had worked in Suriname. A more active form of collecting arises from Collecting Otherwise, a multi-year project researching the roles of women in architecture and urban planning, among other topics. The research is yielding new, surprising contacts and archive material.
The archival materials are shown as they arrived: glass slides in boxes with legend, documents in archive boxes with handwritten labels, and collages and sketches in their original presentation folder. After the exhibition, the archives will be inventoried, restored where necessary and packed in accordance with museum guidelines. After that they will be made available to the public.