The National Collection of Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning, which Het Nieuwe Instituut manages, contains photographs, drawings, maps, letters, and other documents relating to Dutch (ex-colonial) architecture legacies and cultures, including built environments in Indonesia. These archival records are well looked after, and preserved as they are in the institute’s storage facility, but their location in Rotterdam limits their physical accessibility – especially for Indonesian communities.
It is therefore important to widen forms of availability, question the circulation of materials, and underscore digital solidarity. Taking the geographical constraint as a critical issue, this cross-institutional, international workshop seeks to provide (digital) resources, tools and networks to young researchers, as well as to architects’ and artists’ collectives from Indonesia, so that they can access and activate the documents.
Invited participants, selected by Gudskul and arsitekturindonesia.org, are joined by practitioners from Indonesia and the Netherlands to exchange knowledge about the multifaceted ways of researching and resituating colonial archives. Culminating in a public presentation and exhibition, the workshop interweaves practices and perspectives to address the question of archival accessibility while testing the boundaries of our connected colonial past and opening up avenues for sustained collaboration between these networks and Het Nieuwe Instituut.***