FENIX Museum: Where Departures Shaped the World

A visit to the FENIX Museum, on the banks of the Rijnhaven in Rotterdam, feels like a crossing through time and history. The century-old building, a former port warehouse that survived the bombings of World War II, holds within its beams and columns the echoes of departures, of farewells foretold, of unspoken promises that crossed the Atlantic with thousands of immigrants. It is no coincidence that the museum was established in the former terminal of the Holland America Line, the company that transported more Europeans to the so-called New World than any other. Every inch of that floor carries a trace of what the poet Rilke might have called a “homeland of the soul.

There is something deeply symbolic, characteristic of Dutch affirmative gestures, in the decision to entrust the architectural project of the world’s first museum dedicated to migration stories to a Chinese firm: MAD Architects. The choice is a curatorial statement in itself, acknowledging that human displacement is not merely a European chapter, but a planetary narrative, connecting Rotterdam to Shanghai, São Paulo, New York, and Cape Town. The museum’s architecture reflects this: the old concrete structure yields to the new, creating a vast, light-filled space, a bridge between the industrial past and the delicate work of memory reconstructed.

Upon entering, visitors are immediately enveloped by a breathtaking installation: suitcases stacked in a suspended sculpture, each one bearing a tag that can be accessed through an audio guide. Each tag tells a story, names, dates, destinations, and, above all, hopes. It is impossible not to be moved. There is something deeply universal in that mass of luggage. These are the suitcases of our grandparents, our neighbors, ourselves. The everyday object becomes sacred, guardian of stories that refuse to be forgotten.

The permanent and temporary exhibitions are curated with the sensitivity of those who understand that migration is not merely physical displacement but a reinvention of identity. To witness works by artists like Ai Weiwei, William Kentridge, Rembrandt, Steve McQueen, Shirin Neshat, Alfredo Jaar, Do Ho Suh, Kara Walker, and many others in dialogue with migrant memories is to encounter the true power of art: to translate the unspeakable, awaken what lies dormant, and build bridges across time and place.

The curatorship of FENIX avoids easy didacticism. Instead of explaining, it invites us to feel. The videos, photographs, sculptures, and installations, created by contemporary artists from around the world, speak not only of borders and passports, but of belonging, loss, and reconstruction. There is a reverence that moves deeply, as if each artwork is fully aware that it is dealing with real lives, with narratives interrupted and restarted in the middle of the ocean.

The path from the ground floor to the panoramic rooftop unfolds through an impressive metallic staircase that spirals through the space like an open helix. Unlike the famed Vatican staircase designed by Giuseppe Momo in the early 20th century, where paths descend without ever crossing, the structure at FENIX offers the opposite: an architecture of encounters. Its mirrors not only reflect who we are in the moment of our visit but also multiply possibilities. From any point, we see others, coming from above, rising from below, hesitating midway. It’s as if t staircase physically sketches the spirit of the museum: the idea that, despite the different directions we take in life, our paths can see one another, influence each other, and sometimes, even touch.

This metaphor extends throughout the building’s steel structure: robust, yet transparent. A framework that protects, yet invites. One that upholds collective memory while opening itself to the new. At FENIX, architecture and narrative walk hand in hand, it’s impossible to move through its spaces without reflecting on your own steps, the ones already taken and those still to come.

Visiting FENIX is a cultural must for our time, a true act of recognition. In an era where the world seems to forget the lessons of its own history, the museum stands as a living reminder that we are all made of journeys.

I left with a lump in my throat and a fire in my heart. Because there, among suitcases, natural light, and art with purpose, I understood that migration is, above all, an act of faith in the future.

Sapiens Travel offers visits to the FENIX Museum combined with other incredible art centers in the most modern city in the Netherlands.