1. Highlights from the museum's collection: test stage in Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, photo: Lotte Stekelenburg
Imagine the experience: you enter in a room, and you see a variety of pictures dating from the 15th century to today, you see them hanging on a kind of Plexiglass pedestal designed by Lina Bo Bardi. And for a spilt second, you breath in and you experience this space.
This room is in the depot of the museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, a new generation of depot where you can experience the collection of the museum, some privates collections, but most importantly the behind the scenes of a museum, which most of us imagine, but has never saw.
The depot
2. Openingsfeest depot. Beeld: Aad Hoogendoorn
Before creating a depot, you need a museum, a collection, a collector and a city, who wishes to have a place where you can see, share and acquired works for the next generations. The Boijmans Van Beuningen collection is the only collection in the country to present works from 1400 to the present day, in one unique place. Of course, those works where acquired in more then 170 years, most of them we're made by European and American artist, but the museum is slowly trying to expand it's collection by acquiring diverse kind of works from all over the world.
The museum now contains more than 151,000 objects, including more than 63,000 paintings, photographs, films, pre-industrial and design objects, contemporary art installations, sculptures and 88,000 prints and drawings.
Sadly, since the beginning of the museum, the art depots in the cellars of the adjacent Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen were unsafe, overcrowded and outdated... and since the 1970s, the museum had to create large external depots. As the museum needed to be renovated, they took the opportunity to create a museum's depot just next to the museum, but a unique spot where you can look around, explore and visit the behind the scenes of the museum.
In 2004, the idea to create an external depot was put on the table. And in 2007 the first sketches arrive, then, 10 years later the first construction machine arrived on site before the official inauguration of the depot a few years later. Now, the collection is moved to the depot, more than 150 000 works come accessible under one roof in an open depot in the city centre, instead of a closed depot in an anonymous industrial outskirt.
The depot also offers a place to see the collection in a new way and to experience new kind of exhibitions and installations before the end of the renovation of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in 2028.
3. Trailer of the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen by Aram de Groot
In this gigantic depot, works of art are stored, organised and displayed on the basis of their size and climatic requirements. Thus, there are five different climate zones, suitable for different materials such as metal, plastic, paper, black and white and color photography.
Most of the works you can see during your visit are paintings, sculpture and furniture, sadly you can't see the 80 000 - 90 000 works on paper because their are too fragile, and some of them are quite old and damaged, but it can be studied on request. On the opposite, the works which are most familiar with such as films and videos are quite difficult to access, thus they we're completely digitised for conservation reasons but also to allow more access for the public to view them in a film room and two small booths.
The depot of the museum also reflects the ongoing works of the museum, between the collection and research department, which works on registration, loan traffic, conservation, restoration, and facilitates and conducts research.
The place also allows to have a commercial function, thus part of the building is leased as storage space for art from private collectors and for corporate collections such as KPN and Rabobank, or from collectors such as the Lakeside Capital Collection by Ali Keles. Thus, some of those private collection can be seen by a large number of visitors, thus redefining what is a private collection and how it can be experience.
Finally, the depots innovative design was made possible by the Rotterdam architect firm RVRDV. The goal was to create a central hall where the visitors can access big and imposing windows overlooking the storage facility, while not interrupting the ongoing works of the facility and the movement between the storage, the museum, the trucks, etc. To do so, the budding is only a circular form, 40m wide at its base and 60m at its highest point for a high of 35m.
Informations about the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen
Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen
Museumpark 24
3015 X Rotterdam
Phone: +31 0 10 44 19 400