Life hasn't been easy for museums all over the world in the last year: multiple lockdowns due to Coronavirus shut them down. When they reopened, first partially then properly, they had to adapt to new rules and regulations, those health security protocols that have been reshaping our lives in the last 18 months.
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam was actually already shut when Coronavirus hit Europe last year, since it is going through a major renovation (it may reopen in 2028); but, in the meantime, works continued on a new and exciting institution linked to the museum, the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen.
Devised as a building where to preserve the art collection of the museum – covering seven centuries of Western art history and boasting 151,000 works of art, including more than 63,000 paintings, photographs, films, pre-industrial and design objects, contemporary art installations, sculptures and 88,000 prints and drawings – the Depot has been developed in the last four years, even though there were plans for such a structure as early as 2004. The structure was originally planned after the cellars under the museum became unsafe and unsuitable for storage due to flooding.
Located in the Museum Park in Rotterdam, the Depot isn't therefore a proper museum, but, at the same time, it isn't just your conventional warehouse inaccessible to visitors where an art collection is kept.
The Depot is indeed seen as a new opportunity, a structure that stores the museum collection, but that is open to the public to allow visitors to get an insight into the life of a museum.
The decision to opt for such a solution came after considering that museums all over the world generally display an average of six to ten percent of their collections, while the remaining part of the artworks is hidden away in external warehouses and depots located in industrial areas or, when possible, loaned to other institutions or sent for exhibitions in other countries.
This is the main reason why Sjarel Ex and Ina Klaassen from the Directorial team Boijmans Van Beuningen, call the building a "new typology", as the collections treasured here are also open at the same time to the public. So this is the perfect place where you can see art, enjoy architecture and have a break (it includes indeed also a rooftop forest and a restaurant called Renilde that opens up on the city).
But this is not just a place where you can fill your eyes with beauty: one important point of the Depot is presenting to younger generations the jobs of the people working here, getting acquainted with the art of restoration and conservation and maybe even decide to opt for this career in future. Walking around the Depot will indeed explain visitors what it means to choose a piece to add to an esteemed collection and what implies to preserve these pieces with the utmost care. In the next few months visitors will be able to look at the specialists working in the restoration studios on Van Gogh's "Poplars near Nuenen" or Kusama's "Infinity Mirror Room – Phalli's Field (Floor Show)".
The Depot is also a work building, this means that the collection and research department work here on registration, loan traffic, conservation, restoration, facilitating and conducting research.
The Depot will definitely be a key hub linked to the museum when the latter reopens, but, at the moment, it acts as the nerve centre of the main institution during its restoration.
There is not just the collection to discover here, but also the building. The 15,000 m2 Depot, designed by architectural firm MVRDV and located next to the main museum building, features a futurist shape and a reflective façade divided in over 1,664 panels, that allows it to blend it into its surroundings in a striking way, reflecting the city surrounding it.
The rooftop forest integrates trees such as birches and pines that were prepared for their new home in a nursery for three years. Their roots are interconnected, allowing them to withstand stormy weather even at a height of 35 meters.
Accessibility is the key behind this building: everything is displayed to allow visitors to learn more and conduct their art and historical researches. Works of art in the new depot are stored, organised and displayed according to size and climatic requirements rather than on the basis of art movement, era or maker, with five different climate zones, suitable for different materials such as metal, plastic, paper, black and white and color photography.
Collection objects are packed, hanging from a rack or displayed on shelves in one of the fourteen storage compartments, or exhibited in one of the thirteen large floating glass display cases in the atrium. Collections that are usually less accessible, such as prints, drawings and photos from the relevant depots, can be studied upon request.
Some sub-collections, such as the film and video collections, have been completely digitised for conservation reasons but also to allow more access for the public to view them in a film room and in two small booths.
Besides, part of the building is leased as storage space for art from private collectors and for corporate and private collections that may also become open to the public if the tenant allows it.
Moving all the collection here was not a mean feat, it was indeed a monumental task as objects had to be measured two years prior to the rehousing operations to make sure that they fit into the new racks and shelves.
Among the art highlights there is the video installation "Het leven verspillen aan jou" by artist Pipilotti Rist that can be experienced daily after sunset in the public space between the Depot and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.
The main architectural highlight is instead the atrium with the intersecting stairs, a see-through floor (a great idea to display textiles, for example, as it gives the impression to visitor to walk on a colourful magic carpet) and large glass showcases containing collection pieces. These showcases, designed in collaboration with artist Marieke van Diemen, are furnished with art, fashion and design, with works by Iris van Herpen, Auguste Rodin, Carolein Smit, Carel Fabritius, Suzan Drummen, Gijs Frieling and Job Wouters, and Sarkis.
Opened at the beginning of November during a special ceremony with King Willem-Alexander, the Depot is the first building of its kind that breaks with the "hidden artwork" tradition to make all the "invisible" pieces in storage finally visible. You can bet that, at some point in the near future, we will see a runway show in or around the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen.
