Il Sole 24 Ore Highlights Goppion’s Role at the Fenix Museum

Ideas of Migration Reborn with the Phoenix

Rotterdam. A new museum in a port warehouse attempts to reignite the debate. It does so with the help of art, Chinese architects, Michelin-starred chefs, Goppion display cases, and considerable intellectual acuity—with the involvement of the local community.

by Chiara Somajni

Fenix, the newly inaugurated museum in Rotterdam, is taking up the challenge.

Significant, first of all, is the location—Katendrecht, a neighborhood deeply tied to the port identity of the city. It occupies part of the former warehouses of the Holland America Line, notable in both size and history, and now protected by law. This place was made prosperous by the goods and people transported overseas between the 19th and 20th centuries.

Then comes a glamorous, hyper-contemporary touch: the Chinese architects of MAD have introduced into the sober concrete structure—carefully restored by Bureau Polderman—whirling ribbons that twist and intersect with bold, luminous dynamism. These ribbons function as walkways between floors, with reflective surfaces and warm wood underfoot. A Michelin-starred chef, Maksut Aşkar, is on the ground floor offering tastings inspired by Anatolian tradition. And in the coming years, another space will arise next to Fenix—dedicated to another universal but more accessible theme: dance.

The museum opens with three exhibitions. On the ground floor, “The Suitcase Labyrinth” collects 2,000 suitcases donated to Fenix and invites visitors to listen to the stories associated with them, thanks to careful testimonial gathering. Also on the ground floor is “The Family of Migrants,” a photography exhibition on the theme: almost an immersive, cinematic version of Umberto Boccioni’s States of Mind, crossing eras and peoples—from Europeans arriving in New York at the start of the last century to today’s Syrians—recounting departures, goodbyes, and arrivals.

On the first floor, the museum presents the first 150 works of a growing collection, including several newly commissioned pieces, impeccably installed by Goppion—an Italian company that masterfully combines craftsmanship with advanced research, standing out for their ability to bring even the boldest curatorial visions to life.

The airy spaces hosting the artworks eliminate all roughness and impulsive friction. It’s up to the visitor to come closer, interpret, and delve deeper. Of the violence that accompanies many modern migratory experiences, the most explicit expressions are a 19th-century toy gun that invites the Chinese to leave (after they helped build the railroads), and Untitled (Gate) by Shilpa Gupta (2019), a gate that, at regular intervals, unexpectedly and noisily bangs against a wall, gradually breaking it down. Contextual information is minimal but precise, focused on individual stories. Fenix makes room for the aspects we tend to overlook, suggesting resonances and the universality of the migratory experience: dreams of the future, redefinition of identity, perception of borders—even frustrations.

There are indirect evocations—like waiting, packed shoulder to shoulder, on a staircase leading to an airplane that doesn’t exist (Centro di Permanenza Temporanea, 2007, by Albanian artist Adrian Paci). And perhaps it is precisely this lateral approach that allows us to move beyond stereotypes.

Explicit references to current events are few, occasional intrusions that may leave visitors puzzled: a Nansen passport for stateless persons, some images alluding to climate change, a piece of the Berlin Wall (now arguably too pop), and a boat donated by the Customs and Monopolies Agency of Porto Empedocle—vividly colored like the sea, but terribly small and unfit for Mediterranean crossings. Are these necessary anchors to remind us that these are real-life stories—or an aestheticization of tragedy? Some visitors may leave Fenix a bit irritated.

But overall, the approach is clear and challenging: to let the artworks speak for themselves, as explained by Wim Pijbes (former General Director of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam), who led the project on behalf of the Droom en Daad Foundation. Behind this institution are many cultural investments in Rotterdam, as well as investments (alongside renewables) in the fossil fuel industry—a major driver of migration. Is it greenwashing or the sign of a redefinition of values? In the end, it’s a question for all of us.

For the Rotterdam community, the Plein space—also inside Fenix—could play an important role. This platform, which the local civil society is called to make its own, already has a schedule of film screenings, performances, workshops, music, Dutch language cafés, and international press—an invitation to learn about and engage with the many cultures coexisting in the city, and to celebrate them.