THE HAGUE.- On Saturday 6 December Stroom Den Haag opened Revolutionary Traces, the first solo exhibition of the Portuguese-South African artist Ângela Ferreira in The Netherlands. Two new sculptures link the work of the architect Álvaro Siza in the Schilderswijk in The Hague with Bairro da Bouça in Porto. Both housing projects were realized under revolutionary circumstances, in a time when experiment, guts and collective creativity formed the key elements.

The work of Ângela Ferreira focuses on buildings and the meaning they have in different time frames, on different locations, for different people. From this view point she looked at the work of Álvaro Siza in the Schilderswijk in The Hague. In the 1980s Siza was invited to The Hague by Adri Duivesteijn, at that time alderman for housing, as part of the campaign 'Urban renewal as cultural activity'. Duivesteijn first came into contact with the architect’s work when he visited Porto where Siza, as a member of the group SAAL (Serviçio Ambulatório de Apoio Local - Local Ambulatory Support Service, 1974-1976) had realized a number of social housing projects together with the inhabitants. Duivesteijn was looking for an unconventional and visionary architect, capable of realizing meaningful and high-quality housing projects based on the existing cultures and the specific demands of local inhabitants.

Revolutionary Traces focuses on this extraordinary period in the history of social housing and asks questions about the role of culture in urban renewal, the involvement of visionary administrators and the call of the government for participation by the inhabitants.

In addition to the two sculptures the exhibition features documents, photographs, videos and drawings illustrating both Ferreira’s way of thinking and the way Siza looked at The Hague. Also included in the show is an evocative film by Catarina Alves Costa (daughter of Alexandre Alves Costa, one of the prominent members of SAAL) showing the citizens of Porto taking to the streets in order to demand better housing.

Parallel to the presentation at Stroom the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art in Porto hosts the exhibition The SAAL Process: Architecture and Participation 1974-1976. Delfim Sardo, the show’s curator, will give an introductory lecture at Stroom in The Hague, starting at 16 hrs – prior to the opening.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a small catalogue linking the historical projects in Porto and the Schilderswijk. In addition there will be an indepth side program exploring the theme of housing and urban renewal as a cultural activity.