

Hidden (hi)stories symposium
The Creative Industries Fund NL and Nieuwe Instituut invite you to join the Hidden (Hi)stories symposium on Friday November 30. This afternoon symposium showcases a series of projects that explore hidden stories and histories related to the Dutch colonial past and its postcolonial present through design. Through presentations and panel discussions, designers, spatial practitioners, architects, researchers and artists from different geographies around the world will consider their approaches in making these hidden histories tangible, accessible, and discussable.

Which (hi)stories have, up to now, been considered to be important and how have they shaped design, architecture and digital culture? What do these (hi)stories mean for spatial policy choices, for the (mis)use of (material) resources, or for the (in)accessibility of archives and technologies, and what is our (institutional) responsibility regarding this? Which legacies, places and perspectives have so far been neglected, erased or remained hidden? What does it mean to unearth or preserve if there is no tangible documentation or if the possibilities to do so are limited? And, what vocabularies, tools, collaborations, and modalities can be used to surface these hidden (hi)stories and engage with them properly and meaningfully?
Join us on 30 November 2024 from 14:00 - 16:00 CET at the Nieuwe Instituut Auditorium to learn more about, among other (hi)stories, the Netherlands role in the pharmaceutical trade of kinine exploited from forests in Colombia; participatory archiving of the genocide in Srebrenica; oral history as a tool for self narrative of communities in Curaçao, and the contribution of the first generation of women architects to urban planning in Indonesia following independence in 1949.
programme
During the symposium, thirteen supported projects will be discussed:
- Sprekende geschiedenis – Storianan Skondi di Karibe
- el KANTOOR architectuur – In/Visible walls - Stories from the Kampungs of Batavia Indonesië
- NEST – Achter de façade
- Impossible Wherever – Transoceanic Disclose: Weaving Architectural Herstories
- Beyond Provenance – Artefacts after the Regime of Care
- JAG – A Feverish Theatre of Truth
- ACTE Architecture Studio – Hidden Materials Unearthed: From Colonial Wood Plunder to Ecological Justice
- Serana Angelista – Awakening the Archive
- Lisette Alberti – Defining Divinity: investigating the Taiwanese deify of VOC-ers
- Studio L A – Cups of Memory
- Stichting B.A.R.R. – Gamelan PORTAL
- Studio Szuhanlin – Ghosts in Foreign Lands: Unveiling Colonial History Through Folk Narratives
- Counter/Narratives – Archival Horizons
Mireille de Koning and Roxanne da Graca from the Creative Industries Fund NL and Delany Boutkan and Setareh Noorani from Nieuwe Instituut are also part of the programme.
practical info
Date: Saturday November 30
Time: 14:00-16:00 CET
Location: Auditorium Nieuwe Instituut
Language: English
Attendance: RSVP for online or physical attendence