A recently opened cultural institution in the Netherlands explores the universality of the migrant experience.

The harbor-side Fenix museum’s three debut exhibitions include “The Family of Migrants,” a collection of nearly 200 photographs that chronicle the hope and trauma of migrants. (Photo: Iwan Baan/Courtesy of Fenix)

The movement of people has shaped the world we live in, and will continue to define it for generations to come. It’s high time, then, for an art museum dedicated solely to migration. The Fenix is just such a place.

Housed in a century-old warehouse in the former docklands of Rotterdam’s Katendrecht area, Beijing-based MAD Architects’ first cultural project in Europe overlooks the quays where millions of migrants—including notable names like Albert Einstein and Willem de Kooning—once departed or arrived in search of a better life. The building’s defining feature is the Tornado, a double-helix staircase of polished stainless steel that crowns the flat rooftop, acting as both a viewing platform and a metaphor for the nonlinear nature of the migrant journey.

Inside the museum’s concrete halls, artworks, installations, and photographs explore the timelessness and universality of migration. Visitors encounter poignant mementoes contributed by Rotterdam residents, each tied to a personal story of movement and change. There’s an arresting documentary photo exhibition titled The Family of Migrants, and the Suitcase Labyrinth, a maze of thousands of well-worn bags that shows how suitcases, beyond their mere functionality, serve as repositories of memory and identity.

Another exhibition spotlights stories of love, loss, longing, and finding home, as interpreted by artists from around the globe, including Steven McQueen, Efrat Zehavi, Shilpa Gupta, and Omar Victor Diop, among many others. Like the rest of the Fenix, it reminds us that migration is not just a headline. It’s a human story.

fenix.nl

Rotterdam’s Fenix museum is topped by a twisting, double-helix steel staircase dubbed Tornado. (Photo: Iwan Baan/Courtesy of Fenix)

This article originally appeared in the August/September 2025 print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“Fenix Rising”). Buy a single issue or subscribe here.

What’s Inside the New Fenix Museum in Rotterdam

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