One Stone On AnotherOne Stone On Another

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. With contributions by Ievgeniia Gubkina, Hannah Dawn Henderson, Ola Hassanain and Alexandre Furtado Melville.

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, was a background force in the cultural and political life of de Vereniging Ons Suriname in Amsterdam from the 1950's 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 1930's - and the acclaimed 1950's district of Rotterdam Pendrecht, which introduced Stam-Beese's internationalist ideals for living, now reveal tensions which relate to the causes.

With contributions by Levgeniia Gubkina, Hannah Dawn Henderson, Ola Hassanain en Alexandre Furtado Melville.

Ievgeniia Gubkina is an architect, researcher of modernism, curator of architecture and art projects, educational events and activities. She co-founded the NGO Urban Forms Center and women's avant-garde movement Modernistki and is also researcher in the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe. She graduated from Kharkiv National Academy of Municipal Economy with a Master's degree in urban planning. Gubkina has also authored a number of publications and articles. Furthermore she is co-author of the study and book "Soviet Modernism. Brutalism. Post-Modernism. Buildings and Projects in Ukraine 1960-1990" - to be released end of 2018.

Hannah Dawn Henderson is an artist and writer based in The Hague (NL), whose work seeks to examine narratives surrounding the embodiment of diasporic heritage, colonial legacies, and the illegibility of identity. Henderson has participated in exhibitions and projects at Archive Gallery (London), Project Space 1646 (The Hague), W139 (Amsterdam), and Museum Boijmans van Beuningen (Rotterdam). Henderson's first book, "Being, in a State of Erasure", was published in 2017 by Book Works, London, following a period of research into the archives of the National Council of Civil Liberties, supported by the Wilberforce Institute.

Ola Hassanain is an artist with degrees in architecture, cultural identity, and globalization. She has an MFA with distinction from HKU University of the Arts, Utrecht. Ola Hassanain was a 2017/2018 Fellow at BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht. Her videos, texts, performances, installation-based and photographic work produce intriguing artwork that is informed by the cultural, political, and societal position of women in Khartoum, including her own experiences and her family's diaspora. Her projects deal with the link between women, public space, and public order law policies in Khartoum and her involvement in the Dutch art scene has been critical for developing her work on opening up investigations of the roles of architecture and developing spatial literacies around notions of public space. Hassanain lives and works between Utrecht and Khartoum working on her Project "Our Stakes In your Rythm" supported by Prince Claus Fund.

Alexandre Furtado Melville is a self-taught art director, photographer, writer, curator and connector with an educational background in business consultancy at the Rotterdam School of Management. He works and moves around between different disciplines, from design and fashion to art. The cultural aspect of his activities, with attention for the underlying economic and political realities, and development towards social involvement form an important part of his practice. Furtado Melville is currently curator of the Gemaal op Zuid and together with Wider Perspectives in 2019, he tries to bring the local in Rotterdam South and existing art-loving public into contact with each other. He contributes to the journalistic platform Vers Beton / Concrete Blossom, a network and platform for and by young entrepreneurs, cross-thinkers and iconoclasts who strive for an inclusive society.

Wendelien van Oldenborgh develops works, whereby the cinematic format is used as a methodology for production and as the basic language for various forms of presentation, collaborating with participants in different scenarios, to co-produce the script. With these works, which look at the structures that form and hinder us, she participated in various large biennials, and in smaller dedicated shows. Recent presentations include: "Cinema Olanda", solo at the Dutch Pavilion in the 57th Venice Biennial 2017; "I am a native foreigner", Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam 2017/18; "Future Footnotes", solo at Significant Other, Vienna 2018. Her current work will premiere in the exhibition "Bauhaus Imaginista_",_ HKW Berlin 2019.

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