Rotterdam, a major port city in South Holland, is looking to 2025 as a set of important goals to achieve. In spring 2025, Portlantis (renovated by MVRDV), with 3,500 square meters spread over five floors, will become a unique, inspiring and interactive meeting place and exhibition center, nestled in the heart of the port. Portlantis, with a large panoramic roof that opens onto the surrounding port activities, has been organized as an exhibition and conference space, with a shop, a restaurant and a café. The underlying purpose is also to illustrate to the large local and international public how the port works, its role in people’s lives and how it is changing to meet the challenges of the future.
Work in progress for FENIX. Photo Frank Hanswij. Ph courtesy Itinera
Then, on May 16, FENIX will open, the first museum devoted to the stories of migration through an international art collection. The building, with a capacity of 16,000 square meters, was redeveloped based on a project by the Chinese studio Ma Yansong by MAD Architects. The 17 meters long oval-shaped roof offers a 360-degree view of the Rotterdam skyline. We now come to the Nederlands Fotomuseum, founded in 2003 thanks to a donation from Hein Wertheimer, an amateur photographer who left 22 million guilders (10 million euros) upon his death to help open a museum dedicated to Dutch photography. His legacy, known as the Wertheimer Fund, is managed by the Prince Bernhard Cultural Fund, from which the Museum receives an annual contribution. The Museum is now in the process of consolidating, as in autumn 2025 the Nederlands Fotomuseum will move into the recently renovated historic Santos warehouse, providing a new and larger home for its national collection of over six million photographs. The acquisition of the new building was made possible by a donation from the philanthropic foundation Droom en Daad. The eight-storey building will include spaces for various exhibition needs, permanent facilities to house the collection, a bookshop focusing on the history of photography, a specialist library, classrooms, a café on the ground floor and a rooftop restaurant with breathtaking views of Rotterdam.
Rotterdam: entrance to the Nederlands Fotomuseum venue in Statendam 1 (this location will be closed in autumn 2025). Photo Fred Ernst, ph courtesy Nederlands Fotomuseum
The nationally protected Santos building, a hidden gem on the Rijnhaven in Katendrecht, is one of the best-preserved warehouses in the Netherlands, with an interior in near-original condition. The renovation was carefully carried out by contractor Leida Burgy based on a design by Stilwerk, Plattform für Design Kunst Kultur und Leben. Alexander Garbe, owner of Stilwerk, said: «We are very pleased that our efforts have culminated in the best possible outcome: an owner for whom the building was meant to be, and who appreciates the careful renovation. With the Nederlands Fotomuseum as its new owner, the public will be able to enjoy this beautiful cultural heritage of Rotterdam». The building originally had six floors, with a supporting structure of cast iron columns. There is a basement beneath the entire surface of the building. A large atrium with a central staircase was created in the centre. Two new floors have been added to the historic building, the top of which is wrapped in a ‘crown’ with a semi-transparent facade. The warehouse doors open on both the South and North sides.
Rotterdam: interior view of the Santos warehouse under renovation. Photo Fred Ernst, ph courtesy Nederlands Fotomuseum
The Nederlands Fotomuseum, with its move to the former Santos warehouse, intends to become an international photography platform, and the space available certainly makes the difference and acts as a fundamental starting block, then, as is obvious to think, everything will depend on the contents that will be put inside, that is, on the activity that will animate it as well as on the documents that are kept there. In any case, the facades with daylight and non-invasive light make Santos ideal for exhibiting a rotating collection of over six million light-sensitive photographic documents. The next few months will be used to definitively adapt the building to the needs of the Museum. This also means organizing a new warehouse for the permanent collection: from the first daguerreotypes to the 175 precious archives of the director Ed van der Elsken (1925 – 1990), considered one of the fathers of so-called street photography. Among the documents kept there is no lack of works by contemporary photographers such as Erwin Olaf (1959 – 2023) and Dana Lixenberg (born 1964).
From left to right: Alexander Garbe (owner of Stilwerk), Wim Pijpes (director of Droom en Daad Foundation) and Birgit Donker (director of Nederlands Fotomuseum) © Fred Ernst 2023, ph courtesy Nederlands Fotomuseum
Let’s spend a few words on Olaf, whose work and his reactive relationship with life still makes him a key figure in our global world. He has not only created advertising campaigns for Levi’s, Microsoft and Nokia, but has also produced provocative and daring photographic series, such as “Grief”, “Rain” and “Royal Blood”. Furthermore, in addition to being the official portraitist of the Dutch royal family, in 2012 he organized a “kiss in” that saw the participation of about a hundred people after the owner of a snack bar made a disparaging comment about Olaf having kissed his partner in public, which is to say that his being “biased” made him not only an artivist ante litteram, but also a perfectionist of form, capable of controlling every minute aspect of the photographic composition. His work has not been lacking in respectable galleries such as Wagner + Partner in Berlin, Magda Danysz in Paris and Espacio Minimo in Madrid. The Museum therefore gives him a proper place and preserves his memory.
Jan Zeegers (1872 -1937), photographic print. Ph courtesy Nederlands Fotomuseum
Furthermore, the new venue will not fail to have a prominent place for the Dutch Photography Gallery of Honor, a section that will tell the story of photography in the Netherlands from 1842 to the present day. Ultimately, it must be said that a visit to Rotterdam, for 2025, is to be planned.
Fabio Fabris
Info:
www.mvrdv.com/projects/466/portlantis
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