Fenix, emigration becomes art in Rotterdam's new museum

Ma Yansong, l’archistar cinese che ha fondato MAD Architects Studio. Fenix è il suo primo progetto culturale in Europa.

A few numbers: Fenix spans 16 thousand square metres over two storeys at the exact spot where millions of Europeans set sail for the Americas on the Holland America Line (among them Albert Einstein, Willem de Kooning and Max Beckmann), with a 172-metre-long façade.

More than 10 thousand square metres are freely accessible as public space, approximately 6 thousand are reserved for permanent and temporary exhibitions.

Questa immagine del 1925 mostra l’attracco di un transatlantico al magazzino San Francisco, il luogo dove oggi sorge Fenix (foto Rotterdam City Archives).

Comparisons with other European emigration museums (the Red Star Line in Antwerp, the BallinStadt in Hamburg and the award-winning Epic in Dublin) are misleading.

Fenix plays on a different level: that of the art museum.

"Our aim is not so much to reconstruct the emigration experience," Anne Kremers, the director, explains to Il Sole 24 Ore, "but to induce through art a reflection on this phenomenon, which provokes great emotions.

Anne Kremers, direttrice del Fenix: «Vogliamo raccontare le emozioni legate alle migrazioni attraverso l’arte» (foto di Sylvana Lansu).

The huge space of Fenix is divided into three floors.

On the ground floor we have Plein, the covered 'urban square' open to the public and ready to host events and happenings, at the ends of which we find the splendid photo exhibition 'The Family of Migrants' and the intriguing installation 'The Suitcase Labyrinth'.

On the first floor, a huge exhibition space houses the permanent 'All Directions' and future temporary exhibitions.

Un’immagine notturna del Fenix visto dal centro di Rotterdam (foto di Gregg Telussa).

Then there is the Tornado, a metaphor for the migrants' journey, halfway between art installation and architectural element, rising from the ground floor up to the 30-metre-high viewing platform.

The steel and wood double helix covers a space of 550 metres, with a step of 336 steps made of 12,500 wooden planks, covered by 297 steel panels (for a total of 4,000 square metres of metal surface) built in Groningen with a polishing time of about 100 hours.

For the record,in Holland he immediately became the king of Instagram.

But let's get to the exhibitions. Let's start with The Family of Migrants, inspired by the famous The Family of Man, the photographic exhibition curated by Edward Steichen that debuted at the MoMA in New York in 1955 and then toured the world for eight years attracting millions of visitors.

La mostra fotografica «The Family of Migrants», ispirata alla celebre «The Family of Man» inaugurata al MoMA nel 1955: oltre duecento scatti dal 1905 al 2025 per raccontare centinaia di storie di partenze, viaggi e arrivi (foto di Iwan Baan).

Rather than being structured around the journey of a lifetime like its illustrious ancestor, The Family of Migrants focuses on migration in its three key moments: departure, journey and arrival.

Dalla mostra fotografica «Family of Migrants»: un uomo cerca di entrare negli Stati Uniti saltando su un treno merci (foto di Alejandro Cegarra, Messico, 2023).

"The selection seeks to tell the human story of migrants in an engaging way through two hundred historical photographs, taken from 1905 to 2025, with the ambition of creating an emotional connection between the visitor and the protagonists of the shots," explains Hanneke Mantel, Head of Exhibitions and Collection.

Hanneke Mantel, Head of Exhibitions and Collection al Fenix: «Vogliamo creare una connessione emotiva tra i visitatori e i protagonisti delle foto esposte».

Behind the lens of the shots was the eye of 136 photographers, some famous like Alfred Stieglitz, Ruth Orkin, Ernest Cole, Lisette Model and Steve McCurry (the one of the famous Afghan girl in 1984), others unknown in their debut.

Dalla mostra fotografica «Family of Migrants»: una tredicenne afghana (foto di Steve McCurry, Pakistan, 1984, dettaglio).

Also on the ground floor is the Suitcase Labyrinth, a monumental interactive installation with two thousand suitcases from every era donated by private individuals.

A labyrinthine route in which dozens of luggage tells, thanks to the audio guide, their history and that of their owners, from Belgian refugees of the Great War to 1950s immigrants from Indonesia.

«Suitcase Labyrinth», monumentale installazione interattiva con duemila valigie di ogni epoca che raccontano le loro storie grazie alle audioguide (foto di Iwan Baan).

On the first floor is the huge "All Directions: Art that Moves You", with over 150 works acquired over the past five years by Fenix: a broad, multimedia tour ranging from the classical to the contemporary through the works of (among others) Francis Alÿs, Max Beckmann, Shilpa Gupta, William Kentridge, Steve McQueen, Adrian Paci, Bill Viola.

Dalla permanente «All Directions: Art that Moves You»: Red Grooms, «The Bus», 1995, Collezione Fenix (foto di Titia Hahne).

There is the life-size bus of the American Red Grooms, all made of fabric, the Peugeot 404 loaded with luggage of the Korean Kimsooja and 'Man in Wainscott', painted in 1969 on Long Island by Willem de Kooning, the Dutch artist who sailed to the New World from the docks of Rotterdam.

Dalla permanente «All Directions: Art that Moves You»: un frame del video di Adrian Paci «Centro di Permanenza Temporanea», 2007, Collezione Fenix.

Fenix is one of the icons of New Dutch, the movement launched in 2017 with a post on Instagram by Erik van Gerwen, head of international press & media at Eindhoven365, the tourism promotion body of the tech city where Philips and the global chip giant Asml were born.

Erik van Gerwen, responsabile press & media internazionali di Eindhoven365 e fondatore del movimento New Dutch: «Vogliamo raccontare la storia non solo dell’Olanda del passato, ma anche di quella del presente e del futuro, completando lo storytelling tradizionale del nostro Paese (foto di Wouter Kooken).

"The idea is to tell another Netherlands,' van Gerwen explains, 'different from the usual cliché of tulips and windmills: to develop a new storytelling that shows the modern, technological and creative soul of the Netherlands, built on an out of the box approach of free thinking and entrepreneurship.

L’inaugurazione nel 2021 del Boijmans Van Beuningen Depot di Rotterdam, uno dei simboli del movimento New Dutch (foto di Nathan Reinds).

New Dutch, which Erik van Gerwen developed together withKim Heinen of Rotterdam Partners, does not aim to attract conventional mainstream tourism, but a fine palate capable of appreciating cities like Rotterdam and Eindhoven, as well as the innovative soul of other centres.

La Dutch Design Week di Eindhoven, il più grande evento di design del Nord Europa, un’altra delle icone New Dutch (foto di Cleo Goossens).

A new communication philosophy of the Netherlands that finally convinced everyone: today 16 cities and regions join New Dutch, together with the Dutch National Tourist Board (NTBC) and the Dutch Business Board (RVO).

'New Dutch tells the story of the Netherlands of the present and the future,' summarises van Gerwen, 'completing the traditional storytelling of our country'.

Glow, il Festival delle Luci di Eindhoven (foto di Bart van Overbeeke).

The Depot or the Fenix in Rotterdam, but also the Dutch Design Week and the Glow light festival in Eindhoven, are good examples of the New Dutch philosophy.

As well as the lesser known BioArt Village, an iconic venue that inspires an international non-profit organisation led by the volcanic entrepreneur and artist Jalila Essaïdi.

Uno scorcio del BioArt Lab di Eindhoven, ospitato su 1,5 ettari in un complesso di bunker tedeschi della seconda guerra mondiale: è un centro mondiale dove ricerca scientifica e arte si sposano nel nome della simbosi con la natura.

Jalila in his time created the famous 'Bulletproof Skin', a bioengineering project that could create anatural bulletproof vest by combining spider web and human skin (tested, it blocked bullets fired from a short distance).

The Us Army was interested in the patent, but Jalila preferred to surrender it for medical purposes such as burn care or decubitus wounds.

Jalila Essaïdi, fondatrice del BioArt Village e in passato creatrice del famoso progetto di bioingegneria “Bulletproof Skin”, a cui si interessò anche l’Us Army: «I BioArt Lab sono un grande esperimento di social innovation nel nome della simbosi tra natura, arte e uomo» (foto di Vincent van den Hoogen).

But back to the BioArt Village: it is located in a forest on the outskirts of Eindhoven housed in aformer German military complex from World War II with five bunkers 'disguised' as Dutch farms.

It covers 1.5 hectares that are a world attraction for scientists, students and artists from all over the world in the name of the symbiosis between nature, art and man.

Il BioArt Village vanta partnership con il MIT di Boston e con Symbiotica, il centro di ricerca australiano, ed è meta di progetti internazionali di ogni tipo.

The 'Village' boasts partnerships with MIT Boston and Symbiotica, the Australian research centre, and is a destination for international projects of all kinds, from youth volunteering through the European Solidarity Corps Program (from 2021) to art and design exhibitions and team building with engineers from Philips and Asml.

Oltre a scienziati e artisti, i BioArt Lab attirano giovani volontari attraverso l’European Solidarity Corps Program, assieme a progetti con Philips e Asml (foto Studio Heinrich).

'It is a great experiment in social innovation,' Jalila Essaïdi explained to Il Sole 24 Ore, 'halfway between art, craftsmanship, experimentation, education and international exchanges'.

«A Simple Line», dettaglio di un’opera di Jalila Essaïdi (2015).

Also thanks to places like the BioArt Village, New Dutch is pushing the boundaries of mere tourism: in addition to travellers, the project is attracting talent, enlightened investors and innovative entrepreneurs to the Netherlands. All hungry for the future.

(Bede Romano collaborated).