Het Nieuwe Instituut

Conceived as a spa resort, the exhibition Lithium highlights the beneficial and destructive aspects of the eternal human search for energy. Researchers, designers and artists reflect on the role of the chemical element lithium in powering today’s economy. How many times can we recharge our batteries without addressing the causes of depletion, in both human bodies and the planet?

A new look at the work of Nelly and Theo van Doesburg is possible thanks to the restoration of their architecture archive. The exhibition recognises Nelly as a key figure in the consolidation of the reputation of Van Doesburg and De Stijl. The magnificent focus of the exhibition will be on the couple’s most striking joint project: their studio-house in the Parisian suburb of Meudon. Sketches, drawings and scale models rarely (if ever) exhibited before reveal the house’s rich history.

In Sonneveld House, Gijs Bakker and K. Schippers present combinations of jewellery and poetry which they have selected especially for the occasion from their extensive oeuvres. 

How do we present art? And how do we look at it, as viewers? Most museum visitors look at artworks without noticing how they are displayed. In contrast, Art on Display 1949-69 focuses not on artworks themselves, but on the way they are presented. For the first time, the exhibition brings together some of the most progressive postwar exhibition designs by architects in the form of 1:1 reconstructions. Featuring displays by Franco Albini and Franca Helg, Lina Bo Bardi, Aldo van Eyck, Carlo Scarpa and Alison and Peter Smithson.

After two months of forced closure, public life is slowly restarting. While Het Nieuwe Instituut has developed alternative formats and remained open online, it's now possible to open physically again – and so develop more hybrid programming in the near future.