Simpang Susun Arsip Kolonial (Resituating Colonial Archive)

The National Collection of Dutch Architecture and Urban Planning, hosted by the Nieuwe Instituut, contains photographs, drawings, maps, letters, and other types of documents on Dutch (ex-colonial) architecture legacies and cultures, among which built environments in Indonesia. These archival records are well preserved in the institute’s storage facility, but their physical accessibility, especially to Indonesian communities, is limited due to its location in Rotterdam. Taking this geographical constraint not only as a critical issue but also a potential starting point for cultivating forms of collaboration, the Nieuwe Instituut, Gudskul, and arsitekturindonesia.org arranged a series of workshops between December 2022 and January 2023 to provide the selected participants with resources, tools, and networks to access and activate the collection. Altogether, the workshops and exhibition address the question of archival accessibility while testing the boundaries of our connected colonial past, opening avenues for sustained collaboration between these networks of institutions, collectives, and individuals. In the initial Workshops Resituating Colonial Archives, invited participants, selected by Gudskul and arsitekturindonesia.org, were joined by practitioners from Indonesia and the Netherlands to exchange knowledge on and further discuss the multifaceted ways of researching and resituating colonial archives. The Workshops intercrosses practices and perspectives to address the question of archival accessibility while testing the boundaries of our connected colonial past, opening avenues for sustained collaboration between these networks of institutions, collectives, and individuals.