Rotterdam opens a migration museum with a view of Europe's largest port

Rotterdam (Netherlands) May 15 - The second largest Dutch city will open a new migration museum on Friday, so Rotterdam will be decorated with another architectural attraction, the AP agency wrote. From the roof of the former warehouse rises a shiny spiral staircase with a view of the largest port in Europe and also the place from where millions of Europeans once set sail for a better life in the United States.

The museum tells stories of migration and its exhibits include thousands of traveller's suitcases, portraits of refugees and a life-size city bus. The author of the design, architect Ma Jen-sung from the Chinese firm MAD Architects, told the AP agency that he wanted the building to serve not only as a museum, but also as a "memory".

The spiral staircase, which is supposed to represent unexpected life paths, stands on Rotterdam's waterfront and is called the Fenix museum, while anti-immigrant sentiment is growing in Europe, AP wrote. From the observation deck of the museum, you can see Rotterdam, which has more than 170 nationalities for its 650,000 inhabitants.

Last year, during the construction of the museum, the right-wing Dutch government announced unprecedented measures aimed at limiting migration, including the reintroduction of border controls. This shattered the long-held image of the Netherlands as a country that welcomes newcomers.

The museum opens at a time when migration and anti-immigration sentiment are on the rise in many parts of the world. According to the UN, the number of people living outside their native country has almost doubled since 1990, and now there are more than 300 million. "As long as we exist as human beings, we move and migrate. And we will always do that. And that's exactly what we show in Fenix," said museum director Anne Kremersová.

Many of those who set sail from Rotterdam at the beginning of the 20th century went on an ocean voyage with the Holland America Line shipping company, which was founded in 1873 by the Van der Vorm family. This family was the main financial supporter of the creation of the Fenix Museum through the Dutch art foundation Droom en Daad.

"Art can sometimes provide a better basis for discussing politically charged topics such as migration," said anthropologist Cathrine Bublatzkyová, who deals with the intersection of art and migration. The director of the Fenix museum hopes that visitors will take away "the feeling of leaving home, saying goodbye and finding a new home".

WT.24