Pendrecht in Rotterdam and KhTZ in Kharkiv are two neighbourhoods chosen by artist Wendelien van Oldenborgh to examine through the lens of gender, class and race. An introduction to a new work-in-progress about construction and perception.

During her research into the works of architect Lotte Stam-Beese and writer Hermina Huiswoud, Wendelien van Oldenborgh has encountered two significant moments and places they shared. Though they never met, both women experienced the Soviet Union in the early 1930's and ended up influencing public life in the Netherlands in the 1950's. Stam-Beese was a major influence on Dutch post-WW II housing in her role as Chief Architect for Urban Planning for Rotterdam. Huiswoud, having edited the magazine The Negro Worker (1928–1937) and traveled the world for the Communist International (Comintern), was a background force in the cultural and political life of de Vereniging Ons Suriname in Amsterdam from the 1950s onwards, notably through her close connection with artists from the Harlem Renaissance. Both Stam-Beese’s thoughts on housing and Huiswoud’s struggles for racial and class equality were approached through the ideals and early practices of communism. But both the constructivist neighbourhood of KhTZ in Kharkiv, Ukraine – for which Lotte Stam-Beese was part of the Soviet design team in the 1930s – and the acclaimed 1950s district of Rotterdam Pendrecht, which introduced Stam-Beese's internationalist ideals for living, now reveal tensions which relate to the causes.

Thursday Bite

Before the Thursday Night you can grab a bite to eat with the speakers and staff of Het Nieuwe Instituut. At 18:00 Het Nieuwe Café will serve soup with bread or a quiche with salad. Dinner vouchers are available for € 7.50 up to a day before the particular Thursday Night event via the Tickets link.

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