Visit to Fenix Migration Museum

Thursday May 21 was mainly sunny with a high of 21C.  It was a bit windy in the morning, but lots of blue sky by the afternoon.

After breakfast we walked up a nearby street to Hopper, a highly recommended coffee shop, roastery and bakery that opened in 2010.  Allan had an excellent flat white. 

Daan Botlek, 2017: Rotterdam. Make It Happen (the tag line of the city)

Allan at Hopper with his flat white

Chatting with the barista

Walking on the Erasmus bridge-- the iconic Rem Koolhaas  
three linked towers nearly 150 m high (2013)

We passed by the Hotel New York which is situated in the former headquarters of the Holland-America Line dating from 1901.  From here, thousands of emigrants left for North America. It opened as a hotel in 1993.

One side of the Jugendstil style New York Hotel

The other side with the beginning of the small bridge we crossed to get to the Museum.

Our destination was the Fenix Migration Museum.  It is located in a warehouse that was initially built by the Holland-America Line.  It opened as the San Francisco Warehouse and became the world's largest warehouse for cargo transfer.  As WWII was ending, German occupying forces blew up the docks and the northern facade of the warehouse collapsed.  Some years later, a massive fire destroyed the middle section of the building.  The warehouse was rebuilt in two parts renamed Fenix Warehouse I and II, after the mythical phoenix.  The Museum is located in Fenix II Warehouse.  

Fenix II warehouse was renovated by MAD Architects and the 16,000 sq-metre space is topped with a double-helix stainless-steel and-timber 'tornado' staircase accessing a 24m-high view platform overlooking the Hotel New York ( Holland-America Line's former HQ) and quays that saw millions of voyages.  Fenix Museum of Migration opened in May 2025.

View of Fenix Migration Museum from outside the Hotel New York

The Tornado staircase

One side of the building showing the warehouse

Entrance and ticket counter

The amazing stairway

The new museum has acquired hundreds of contemporary artworks and commissioned many more.   There were two exhibitions on the main floor.  The first was entitled The Family of Migrants, which brought together 200 photographs from around the world depicting the story of migration.  The earliest image is 1905 and the most recent photograph is from 2025, from Syria.  There are three parts to the exhibit: departure, travel and arrivals.  The exhibit features 135 photographers, including images taken in 55 countries.  Some are world-famous, while others have never been displayed.

The Family of Migrants is inspired by the famous photographic exhibition The Family of Man, which opened in 1955 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and later travelled the world.  While The Family of Man told the universal story of humanity from birth to death, The Family of Migrants tells the same universal story, now with migration as the unifying theme.   

Summary of Exhibit

There was a booklet with a description of each numbered photograph.  I have put the captions from the booklet with a number of the pictures below.

Alfred Stieglitz. Atlantic Ocean, 1907.  Those who bought the cheapest tickets travel in steerage.

Ernest Cole, South Africa, 1960 Life Under Apartheid.  The trains reserved for black people are always overcrowded.

We were very excited to see a photo by my cousin Jack Delano (1914-1997) who worked for the Works Progress Administration and Farm Security Administration as a photographer before settling in Puerto Rico.  This photo was taken in 1940.

Jack Delano. United States. 1940.  A young woman and her family are itinerant workers travelling along the East Coast looking for work as potato harvesters.  The car is being packed.

Hans Heckmann. Germany, 1962.  A group of Italian guest workers in Hanover.

Sergey Ponomarev. Croatia, 2015.  A man scrambles onto a train at the last moment,
hoping to reach Zagreb.

Margaret Bourke-White. Germany, 1945.  Travelling home after years of war.

John Florea. Germany, 1945. Cologne, just after WWII.

Unknown photographer. United States, 1940. Albert Einstein acquires American citizenship. "I will be a migratory bird for the rest of my life.  I'm learning English, but it's not sticking to my old brain."

Steve McCurry. Pakistan, 1984.  A twelve-year-old girl from Afghanistan.  
She fled through the mountains to Pakistan after the Soviet Union bombed her village.  
She became known as 'Afghan Girl', but her name is Sharbat Gula.

Ian Berry. West Germany, 1963.  Two brothers, separated by the Berlin Wall, are reunited.  The wall had been opened briefly during the Christmas period that year.

It was a fabulous photography exhibit displaying the trials and tribulations of migration through departure, travel and arrival.  Some seeking adventure, new opportunities or safety.  Some carry bags filled with belongings, which others have no opportunity to pack.   The humanity displayed in the photographs comes through.

The second exhibit was entitled: Suitcase Labyrinth.  There was a large room done as a maze of 2000 suitcases donated from around the world.  The oldest piece dates to 1898, which began its journey to The Netherlands aboard the Trans-Siberian Railway.  The newest model is a Samsonite suitcase that was still in use until recently. A number of the pieces had yellow luggage tags and one could listen to the stories on an audio tour guide. We listened to a few stories, which were very interesting.  There was also a timeline entitled: Migration and Rotterdam in 101 Steps.

Suitcase Labyrinth 

Part of the timeline

This suitcase had a yellow tag with a story of an emigrant from Prague in 1938.

Piles of suitcases and timeline on the wall

It was an interesting concept and the personal stories strike a chord.  The sheer number of suitcases was a bit overwhelming and there were not many with the yellow tags that had stories with them.

One wall in this exhibit had a piece of art entitled : (Kindness) of (Strangers), 2015 by Alfredo Saar (Chile, b. 1956).  The alrrows show the most travelled migration routes in Africa, Asia and Europe in 2015. Rather than heading straight from A to B, they take diversions and are sometimes interrupted.  The neon arrows show that the route someone takes depends on luck and the kindness of strangers. 

Acquired in 2018, this piece was the very first artwork in the Fenix collection.

We then took the elevator up to the top floor to check out the view.

On the top level

View back to the Hotel New York and other buildings nearby-- one can see a huge cruise ship that was docked in the harbour.

Heading down the stairs 

There was a large and spread out exhibit on the two sides of the stairway on the first floor (2nd floor in Canada).  It was entitled All Directions: Migration seen through the lens of artists.  It is the opening exhibit of Fenix.  The artists tell stories that cross borders and break down boundaries.  They illustrate that migration is universal, timeless, and above all, human.  There are six themes; migration, identity, fortune, border, flight and home.   There were also a number of pieces with an In-Between orange banner.  These were done by ten woman artists exploring the in-between space of migration.   

The Bus, 1995.  Red Grooms (United States, b. 1937)
The artist draws inspiration from urban life, where the whole world comes together.  Inside the bus, one experiences the melting pot that is New York City.

Back of the bus

We went in the bus--- lots of NYC characters.

Man in Wainscott, 1969 (Willem de Kooning (The Netherlands, 1904- United States, 1997).  De Kooning was born in Rotterdam.  In 1926, he left as a stowaway on a ship bound for New York City.  Despite his success, he still writes to his father that he still thinks of the street he was born on.

Diaspora, 2014-2015. Omar Victor Diop (Senegal, b. 1980). This was one of a series of staged self-portraits inspired by historical paintings of prominent African men from the 16th and 19th centuries.  He links the past to the present by incorporating a football-related object into each image.

Hands, 2021-2023. Beya Gille Gacha (b. France, 1990)

Tresses, 2017-2020, Meschac Gaba (Benin, 1961).  The artist,  who lived in Rotterdam for a period of time was inspired by African hair salons.  She crafted seven wigs in the shape of iconic buildings of Rotterdam. The creations blend traditional hairstyles from Benin with Rotterdam's architectural gems, honouring the expression of identity.  One of them is The Markthal, another is Centraal Station, and the red wig is the Euromast.

Refugee Diptych, 2018-2019, William Kentridge ( b. South Africa, 1955). 

Poster for the Holland- America Line-1929

Where Are We Going, 2020-2022, (Efrat Zehavi (Israel, b. 1974). One of the 10 woman artists featured.  Rotterdam artist Efrat Zehavi met many locals and while asking them the question: "Where are you going", she sculps her subjects in soft clay.  She created 116 portraits for Fenix, comprising of the many faces that give Rotterdam its unique character.

Entrance to second half of the exhibit.

Patterns of Migration, 2015.  Dan Halter (b. Zimbabwe, 1977).  These plastic bags are used everywhere and migrants all over the world pack up their most important belongings in them.

Segregation Story, 1959, Gordon Parks (United States, 1912-2006).  Jim Crow laws segregated black and white Americans between 1880 and 1965.  Segregation Story follows the Thornton family.

First edition of The Secret Annex, 1947.  Anne Frank (Germany 1929-1945).  Anne and her family lived in The Netherlands from 1933 on as German nationals, until the Nazi regime took their citizenship from them in 1941.  Anne wrote in her diary that "my first wish after the war is that I may become Dutch!".

The Boat, 2017. Abdalla Al Omari (b. Syria 1986).  Trump, Merkel and Macron are packed into a wooden boat with many other world leaders.  Putin and Assad sit shoulder to shoulder, their legs dangling over the edge, while Clinton is seated nearby.  The politicians are all in the same boat, reimagined as rattled participants in the greatest human tragedy of our time.

Segment of the Berlin Wall, 1975-1989. 

Refugee Astronaut IX, 2024.  Yinka Shonibare CBE (b. United Kingdom, 1962).  The nomadic astronaut is in search of a new home on a safe planet.  The artist invites you to reflect on the far-reaching effects of climate change and the forced migration it will bring more and more in the future.

Leaving Fenix

We stopped for delicious gelato just outside the Museum

We were sitting on a bench very close to the small bridge we had to walk over to where the Hotel New York is located.  We watched the bridge being raised to accommodate a barge.  Lots of fun to watch.  It didn't take too much time.  

Bridge starting to be raised

Barge travelling through

We had about a 20 minutes walk back to the apartment.  We came in through the other end of our street. There was a very well done mural on the side of the apartment block

Graffitti on one side of our apartment block

It was a very fulsome and interesting day in Rotterdam.  The Fenix Migration Museum really portrays the humanity of migrants, the conditions that lead to migration and the many places where migrants are from and where they end up.   It is interesting that the Museum opened amid a tense political climate regarding immigration in The Netherlands.  Visitors have found that the Museum fosters a greater understanding of the immigrant experience. Well worth the visit.