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https://www.positive.news/society/a-museum-on-the-move-new-institution-captures-human-stories-of-migration/>
"An art museum devoted to migration has opened in Rotterdam, near the dock
where Albert Einstein fled Europe to start a new life in the US.
The Fenix museum is the centrepiece of a regeneration project in the
harbour-side neighbourhood Katendrecht, formerly home to Rotterdam’s red-light
district and Europe’s largest Chinatown. Its opening comes at a time of
hardening rhetoric against immigration in Europe.
The 16,000 sq m building, dating from 1923, was once part of the largest
warehouse in the world, an important building for storage and shipping for the
Holland America Line – a Dutch cargo and passenger line. The Holland America
Line facilitated the journeys of millions of migrants in the 19th and 20th
centuries, who arrived and departed from the surrounding docks.
“It’s not for us to tell people how they should feel about migration,” the
museum’s Esmee Köhler told
Positive News during a preview visit last year.
“We just want to enrich the view that people have about it.”
Fenix – designed by Chinese architect Ma Yansong – opened with three
exhibitions, including
Suitcase Labyrinth, a collection of 2,000 suitcases
that tell personal stories of people from around the world. The building itself
is full of symbolism: the chrome double-helix on its roof, which visitors can
walk on, represent movement and the myriad paths that people take in life.
The inaugural collection exhibition
All Directions: Art That Moves You
showcases 150 artworks and objects ranging from the historical to the
contemporary, drawn from the Fenix collection and acquired over the past five
years.
As well as exhibitions, the museum has a vast indoor city square or ‘plein’ on
the ground floor. It will serve as a space for connection and exchange, hosting
cultural events curated by Rotterdam’s many communities throughout the year.
Fenix is funded by the
Droom en Daad Foundation, founded in 2016 and led by
Wim Pijbes, former director of the Rijksmuseum."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
