The Queer Salon #4The Queer Salon #4

In landscape design, gardens and parks are a classic metaphor for the earthly expression of paradise. At the same time, we also know gardens and parks to be important queer spaces, from safe havens to places for chance encounters. Well-known references include the almost mythical garden of filmmaker Derek Jarman and José Muñoz’s manifesto for a “cruising utopia”.

The starting point is the idea that a different understanding of nature and ecology might be possible from a queer perspective: no longer as a metaphor or model for a supposedly healthy society, but rather as an impetus for a more inclusive recognition and treatment of the world, where there is space for difference and deviation.

In addition to exploring the garden and park as a “safe space” for outsiders and a place for chance encounters, we will also consider the memory of gardens and nature, and the possibility of them being an archive in their own right. The Museumpark and the New Garden have changed considerably in recent years. Can we still see traces of their earlier designs, and with them past histories?

• 14:00 Walk-in at Nieuwe Instituut
• 14:15 Introduction by Dirk van den Heuvel
• 14:30 [Notes on archival pieces by Stef Dingen] (https://nieuweinstituut.nl/pages/queer-salon-4)
• 14:45 In conversation with Joost Emmerik, Frank Bruggeman, and Riek Bakker
• 16:30 Stroll through the Nieuwe Tuin and the Museumpark
• 17:00 Drinks by the Henket Pavilion at Boijmans Van Beuningen

This year, the Queer Salon is organised in collaboration with Rotterdam Architecture Month. The Museumpark, originally designed by Yves Brunier, is the festival centre of the 2024 edition.

Brunier’s work is represented in the Dutch National Collection in the archives of OMA (Museumpark) and Neutelings & Roodbeen Architecten (European Patent Office). A selection of his drawings and collages will be on display during the Queer Salon. A selection of Michael van Gessel’s work will also be on show, with a particular focus on his interest in gardens and parks as repositories of memory, building on the historical design of the gardens and parks in which he has worked. In 2019, the Nieuwe Instituut acquired [Michael van Gessel’s archive] (https://nieuweinstituut.nl/en/articles/archief-van-landschapsarchitect-michael-van-gessel-verworven), which consists of work from his own practice, after he stepped down as director of Bureau B+B. Riek Bakker founded Bureau B+B with Ank Bleeker. On the occasion of the salon, Bakker's design for the competition of Parc de la Villette in Paris will also be laid out.

Joost Emmerik is one of the guests in this salon. He is a landscape architect and head of the master’s programme in landscape architecture at the Academy of Architecture of Amsterdam. Emmerik is working on a book about queer gardens, based on his online project of the same name. Artist Frank Bruggeman, who is responsible for the Nieuwe Instituut’s New Garden, will also be present to talk about what he calls nieuwe flora – plants or plant species that unexpectedly appear in places where they do not belong. Riek Bakker finally, is one of the founders of Bureau B+B, and served as director of city planning for the municipality of Rotterdam. She designed one of the winning submissions of the Parc de la Villette competition, and was involved with the planning of Rotterdam's Museumpark.

The first edition of the Queer Salon in 2021, with a keynote lecture by architect and queer theorist Olivier Vallerand. The second edition in 2022 explored the hidden histories of LGBTIQ+ communities and individuals. The third edition in 2023 focused on cripping activism in the arts and the inclusion of queer people with disabilities. Recordings of the previous events are available on our website.

The Queer Salons series is part of the The Critical Visitor project, which is sponsored by the Dutch Research Council’s Smart Culture programme. This project explores how heritage institutions can achieve inclusiveness and accessibility in their organisation, collections and exhibition spaces, to meet the diverse demands of today’s critical visitor. Alongside the Queer Salon series, the project offers a programme of field laboratories 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, Nieuwe Instituut). The project involves a consortium of 15 national heritage partners and cultural institutions.

This event is part of the Rotterdam Architecture Month programme, which takes place in and around the Museumpark throughout the month of June. See our other activities.