At the Hembrug site in Zaandam, behind high fences and strict security squeezed between the borders of Amsterdam and Zaandam, the Artillery Establishments from 1895 produced firearms, artillery and ammunition for the Dutch army. In 2003 the military functions of the site were abolished and the first artists and creative minds settled there. A decade later, a few entrepreneurs followed the government's go-ahead to redevelop the area into a residential and recreational area. Since 2017, Amerborgh International has been the owner of the former ball factory on this site, a two-hundred-meter-long white building from 1957 on the banks of the North Sea Canal. In 2018, Het HEM BV was founded as a subsidiary of Amerborgh to give the ball factory a new meaning as a meeting place for contemporary culture. The HEM Foundation was established that same year as the cultural conscience of HEM. The Foundation produces an artistic program that keeps a close eye on developments in the Hembrug site and links them with social movements at local, national and international level. The controversial history and origin of the industrial area provides a contrasting framework for questioning the role of man in society. The expansion of the city of Amsterdam to Zaandam and the gentrification process that this entails also give direction to our program.