Conducts research and collects data on the global history of labour, workers, and labour relations

Lecture: FILM-SCREENING: ‘Building amidst solitude’

Date: 
6 March 2018
Location: 
IISH, Posthumus Room, 15.00 hrs


Guided by political conviction and social consciousness architect Han van Loghem travelled to Siberia in the mid 1920s. The Soviet Union was in need of specialists to help design and construct entirely new cities in the Urals and Siberia, which were to become important mining and metallurgical centers. Filled with ideals and desire for adventures modern architects from West Europa left for the future workers’ paradise.

‘Building amidst solitude’ reveals how for van Loghem the journey to Siberia was also a quest for personal and professional fulfillment, which in the Netherlands he felt he lacked. Van Loghem’s personal quest had its repercussions on his marriage and his wife Berthe Neumeijer, who initially planned to stay in the Netherlands, followed him to Siberia in an attempt to save their marriage.

‘Building amidst solitude’ is a film by Pim Zwier, made in collaboration with the International Institute of Social History. The film is based on letters by Berthe Neumeijer from the collections of the International Institute of Social History, and was made at the occasion of the hundred year anniversary of the Russian Revolution.

It premiered in EYE film institute on 24 October 2017 and was subsequently screened at the Noordelijk Film festival in Leeuwarden, the Eindhoven Film Festival, Museum het Schip in Amsterdam, het Nieuw Instituut in Rotterdam, and De Balie in Amsterdam.

Director: Pim Zwier
Production: Gijs Kessler and Pim Zwier
Research: Natalia Eremina, Gijs Kessler, Pim Zwier.

The film will be shortly introduced by Gijs Kessler, and after the screening director Pim Zwier will be present for a Q&A.

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Gijs Kessler (1969) is a senior research fellow at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, and a specialist in the social and economic history of Russia and the Soviet Union. He obtained his MA degree from the Free University in Amsterdam (1994) and his PhD from the European University Institute in Florence (2001). From 2002 to 2016 he lived and worked in Moscow, where he carried out and co-ordinated research projects for the International Institute of Social History and taught economic and social history at the New Economic School. Together with exhibition maker Jeroen de Vries he created the exhibition “Together and Apart. The Family in Russia in the Twentieth Century”, which in 2012-2015 was on show in Assen, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Vladivostok.

Pim Zwier (1970) is a filmmaker/media-artist and obtained his MFA from the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam in 2003. He makes documentary films, shorts and video-installations. His films and video-installations cross the lines between media-art, experimanetal film and video-art, and were screened at national and international film-festivals, exhibitions and television. Next to his work as a film-maker and a media-artist he has compiled film programmes for amongst others the Filmbank/EYE, as well as various international film festivals, and is a member of the jury for several international film festivals.

IISH Seminar
This screening is part of the monthly IISH Seminar series. In principle, seminars take place every first Tuesday of the month. The seminar is open to the public, but with regard to accommodation and distribution of the paper in advance, we would like you to register with Jacqueline Rutte, jacqueline.rutte@bb.huc.knaw.nl.  After the lecture we serve drinks. We are looking forward to meeting you.