Het Nieuwe Instituut

Create jewellery and poetry as you explore the relationship between the two in this combined workshop by goldsmith Nastasia Gendreau and poet Dean Bowen. During the workshop, you’ll dive into the stories behind the materials. What are the materials saying? Where do their stories meet your own? And how to translate all of this into a poem or a piece of jewellery?

An alternative look at the work of Nelly and Theo van Doesburg, made possible in part by the recent restoration and digitisation of the Van Doesburg architecture archive. The exhibition views Nelly as a key figure in the development of the reputation of Theo Van Doesburg and De Stijl. Their most distinctive project plays a central role in the exhibition: the studio house in Meudon, a suburb of Paris.

Under the title Disclosing Architecture, a six-year programme was launched in 2019 to improve the visibility and accessibility of the National Collection for Architecture and Urban Planning, made possible by a one-off investment from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW). In addition to projects in the field of restoration, conservation and digitisation, research projects will also be initiated in the coming years together with the Research and Programme departments and the Jaap Bakema Study Centre.

For the exhibition in Sonneveld House, Gijs Bakker and K. Schippers select combinations of their jewellery and poems from their extensive oeuvres.

A series of online articles called Nelly &... appears with the exhibition, providing more insight into the life of Nelly, her artistic network and her fundamental role in the promulgation and perception of Theo van Doesburg’s work. When she first met Peggy Guggenheim, Nelly talked a lot about her husband Theo and his work. Peggy was only moderately interested: “I was not in the least impressed and thought she was funny. I allowed her little by little to force her way into my life.” In Atelier Nelly and Theo van Doesburg, Nelly emerges as a personality able to connect the most diverse circles and networks.

The exhibition Basics is part of the series Interventions in which designers and artists respond to Sonneveld House or give a new interpretation of the term ‘museum house’. For example, artist Santiago Borja installed an observatory on the roof of Sonneveld House in 2016, reflecting the spiritual thinking which helped to form the ideology of the Nieuwe Bouwen movement and so Sonneveld House itself.