The Queer Salon #2The Queer Salon #2

The second edition of The Queer Salon explores the hidden histories of various LGBTIQ+ communities and individuals. Where do you find them, and how do the people involved create their own stories and history? How do these stories get a place in the official institutions? Who is that really about? Must all kinds of institutional practices change first, before it becomes possible? And if so, how?

This second edition of the Queer Salon coincides with Rotterdam Pride, with the motto Dare to Be Proud, and with Rotterdam Architecture Month, which has the theme of House/Home.

• 14:00 Introduction by Dirk van den Heuvel, moderator of the afternoon
• 14:10 Selections from the National Collection of Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning, including the models of Wim den Boon by Martin van Wijk
• 14:30 Conversation with Charl Landvreugd on new ways of working with institutional collections.
• 15:00 Break, pink drinks and opportunity to look at the archival materials
• 15:15 Presentations and conversations with guests:
• Girls Like Us, 'When Walls Speak' by Jessica Gysel
• Snapshots from a private collection by Jan Carel Warffemius
• Dig It Up, Rotterdamse Roze Kaart by Simone da Silva and Piet Gamelkoorn
• 17:00 Pink drinks and visit to The Podium.

Dirk van den Heuvel is the head of the Jaap Bakema Study Centre, the research collaboration between TU Delft and Het Nieuwe Instituut. His research includes among other things diversity and inclusion matters in architecture and urban planning.

Martin van Wijk is a researcher and writer interested in bringing feminist, queer, and decolonial theory into the domain of architecture. His research considers the ways in which architecture and design function as subjectivizing devices through which gendered, sexualized, and racialized identities are constructed. Currently he is working on a queer reading of the National Collection of Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning at Het Nieuwe Instituut. Martin studies Art History at the University of Amsterdam and Gender Studies at Utrecht University, and has recently completed an internship at the Jaap Bakema Study Centre under supervision of Dirk van den Heuvel.

Charl Landvreugd is an artist, researcher and educator, who explores concepts of citizenship and belonging, and studies how these are expressed in the visual arts in continental Europe. His artistic work has been presented at venues such as the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago and the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. Landvreugd completed his PhD in Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art in London and applies the results of his ongoing research at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam among other places.

Jessica Gysel is a creative strategist and editor based in Brussels, with a background in co-creation and participatory projects for commercial and cultural brands. Many of her projects folllow an editorial approach in serch of new formats, both in print and on-line. She is the founder and publisher of the queer-feminist magazine Girls Like Us. The magazine also functions as a social platform, while investigating new media formats such as podcasts, social media, events, and exhibitions.

Jan Carel Warffemius is a photographer with a special interest in portraying gay and queer nightlife. He is also a collector of photos of historical gay and queer life. His private collection counts among the most important resources of gay and queer histories in the Netherlands.

Simone da Silva is the director of DIG IT UP, a gallery space and heritage lab based in Rotterdam. DIG IT UP aims to tell the untold stories of Rotterdam based on the ROZOVO principle: Rotterdamse Zoldervondsten, which translates to attic finds. DIG IT UP works with the public every step of the way, from sourcing their collections to having them curate the exhibitions and adding their own knowledge by contributing directly to archival metadata. This year during Rotterdam Pride DIG IT UP present the online map 'Pink Rotterdam', an overview of the gay scene in Rotterdam through the years.

Piet Gamelkoorn holds an iconic status in the Rotterdam gayscene since was the owner of the legendary venues Gay Palace and Keerweer. These days he runs the website Gaytoys.nl. Recently, he published his first novel Pietje, een Rotterdamse jongen about his own life and the gayscene.

The opening session of the Queer Salon took place on 2 February 2021 in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, and was therefore online. The guests were Indira van 't Klooster (director of ARCAM), Vincent van Velsen (curator), and Ellen Smit (curator at Het Nieuwe Instituut). The keynote lecture was given by architect and queer theorist Olivier Vallerand, author of Unplanned Visitors: Queering the Ethics and Aesthetics of Domestic Space. See a recording of the event here.

The Queer Salon series is part of The Critical Visitor project, which is sponsored by the Dutch Research Council's Smart Culture programme. This project investigates how heritage institutions can achieve inclusiveness and accessibility in their organisation, collection and exhibition space, so meeting the multiform demands of today's critical visitor. In parallel with the Queer Salon series, the project offers a programme of field labs and archival interactions. The Critical Visitor is led by Eliza Steinbock (Leiden University), Hester Dibbits (Reinwardt Academy, Erasmus University) and Dirk van den Heuvel (TU Delft, Het Nieuwe Instituut). A consortium of 15 national heritage partners is working on the project.

Het Nieuwe Instituut manages the National Collection for Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning and is one of the initiators of the Network Archives Design and Digital Culture. Since its foundation in 2013, Het Nieuwe Instituut has been experimenting with new, discursive formats in its government-funded role as a heritage institution. In the world of architecture and design - unlike in the arts, the media and the cultural sciences - a queer and intersectional perspective is still very underdeveloped. Therein lies an ambition that The Queer Salon is pursuing in collaboration with the consortium of academic and cultural partners of The Critical Visitor.