Nieuwe Instituut – Collecting Otherwise (2021 – 2025)

Page of the scrapbook [Work_Labour Dossier: Feminist Housing Analysis] by Lidewij Tummers, 1986. Source: Archive [Women Building Housing] / Bureau Tussen-Ruimte. Donation Lidewij Tummers, Collection Het Nieuwe Instituut

Project at the Nieuwe Instituut. Project lead and working group member.

Selected publications and mentions:
Workshops intersectionaliteit: Collecting Otherwise te gast. FARO Vlaanderen.
Building Herstories: de vergeten architectes op 7 maart in het Nieuwe Instituut

Drawing on the architecture collection under the Nieuwe Instituut’s management, Collecting Otherwise explores the possibilities for an alternative architectural, heritage and archival practice, one that reflects a society that is constantly changing. Following the previous editions Seen/Unseen (2021) and Post/De/Colonial (2022), 2023 and 2024 are dedicated to The Tool Shed – the resources that can help to develop new ways of acquiring, classifying and exhibiting heritage.

Collecting Otherwise advises on the development of the collection policy on the basis of a series of archives that are either already part of the collection or that are yet to be acquired. This project is in line with the Nieuwe Instituut’s ambition to not only make visible the potential of its rich collection, but also to identify the gaps it contains, in order to recognise actors and practices that were excluded on the basis of, for example, historical collection policy.

In the course of the multi-year trajectory during which Collecting Otherwise is taking shape, participants work within annually changing ‘iterations’. For each year, a thematic approach determines the focus of the ongoing research.