Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen — Attraction in Rotterdam

It is sad that the Boijmans Van Beuningen, which has a great collection, particularly noteworthy for including panels by Van Eyck, Bruegel and Bosch, has for so long closed their historic building. Their new, so-called Depot, is an unfortunate piece of showmanship which does no justice to the once great institution that built it or the art it hides. Now joined by the Fenix staircase just a short metro ride away as an architectural showpiece with a view, the Depot is a glossy babble that truly makes one appreciate how very much more sophisticated is Frank Gehry's work (e.g., Guggenheim Bilboa) by contrast, both inside and out. When we visited the Depot a few weeks ago, in addition to the physical difficulty we experienced as seniors in navigating the interior, we were struck that the designers had apparently learned little or nothing from the many perhaps unglamorous, but highly successful examples of open storage built by major art museums during the last generation (for example, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC). Very few works are visible, and those that are visible are often lacking for labels (again, unlike other, much more successful open storage designs). But sadly, the designers are proud of this! They ask, "Do you really need to know the artist's name to understand the meaning of the work? Do you have to now when it was created and what story or subject is depicted?" For those of us who are professional educators who have taken 100's and 100's of youth to visit multiple museums the answer is a resounding YES! While those of us old enough and fortunate enough to have studied history recognize meanings and can discuss contexts on our own, if you feel a museum should be an educational institution then directing folks to an online app obviates the entire purpose of being there! If we are content living a virtual existence we needn't travel to visit Rotterdam, but can just browse from our desktops! The Depot did have up a fine, well documented exhibition on the challenge of addressing decay in glass (yes, glass decays), which should have been the subject of a full catalogue. Elsewhere a few works were installed with minimal labels, but locating these nice bits, and overcoming the management's apparent hatred of art history, is a challenge. I had traveled to Rotterdam just to see this museum several times over the decades, including for their important Bruegel show, and certainly embrace contemporary architecture, which I've also traveled far to visit, but if you come to Rotterdam for more than just rooftop views, the Depot is a largely a failure and brings shame to a once great museum. Unless you're in town, it isn't...

Not worth the money (20€, more than the Louvre with guided tour!).

Please note the expo is not about the artworks, but rather about the preservation process. This might be an interesting topic indeed. However the results is a very odd experience, sometime rather unpleasant because of the way the space is administered in practice by the staff. They miss any skill in managing the visitors, let alone politeness.

The tour is really important to appreciate the narrative of the museum, otherwise the exposition itself is not well organzied and not narrated for the audience, you will not enjoy just wandering around the museum, also because the material itself is of little worth after

The material is serially exposed and presented "as is". The description is left to an app, which goes into great length to describe materials and physical dimensions, but says nothing on the work nor why it has been chosen to display. This may fit with the idea of giving the perspective of the conservator, but the museum should be advertised as a lab, not as depot or museum.

Please note the app has mostly text and no audio, so that your eyes need to be on your phone instead of the artworks. That is a very counter productive choice in my opinion. I came here to see things, not to read.

The musem/depot/lab will give you a great display of security theater. This was impressive. The vast majority of the works are behind 1 inch of glass (see picture), still they are so theatrically afraid of the "preservation" that you cannot access the place wearing a coat, no matter what. This has no exceptions. In my opinion it is a compelte show-off of "security", given the protection warranted by the glass and also given what happens in all other museums of the world. Before our visit the temperature has suddenly dropped and it was cold on the premises, but still no coats. The reason given at the entrance by the staff is that "your coat may be wet and we have no way to check" followed by a masterpiece of rudeness "We value the works in storage more than the visitors". Then do not open to the public! This is not acceptable, especially if your coat is absolutely dry.

Keep in mind that the place shows maybe 200 peices, even if they mention maaaany thousands (which you cannot see). Yet another badly communciated aspect of the visit on their website and...

Great disappointment. All the money that could have gone to the actual museum went to creating a new "city landmark". And for what? For people to take photos underneath the building? What about the thousands of artworks that are hidden away from the public?

The architecture is undoubtedly a masterpiece, but as of now, a construction site surrounding it makes it a pearl in a puddle of mud. The interior experience, on the other hand, is walking through a staircase with artworks hanging spontaneously around its walls. The pieces (some of them) have descriptions, but inside an app a visitor has to download. Catching conservators at work happens rarely and is a dull experience from a window perspective. Oh, haven't I mentioned the windows? Yes, Depot is an "open" art storage - and is as open as the windows in the main staircase let you peek inside the storage rooms. The task is challenging because you can't really see anything that isn't a 3D sculpture purposely put there by the institution.

The only good feature is the exhibitions. However, Depot themselves state that it's only for the people to "not be cut off from the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen collection while the museum is closed for renovation". So again: what's the point of fancy storage while the museum has already been closed for four years? The exhibitions could have been held at the existing museum! Moreover, visitors at the Depot seem to crave the old collection so much that they wait in lines to see it once it's presented! They don't stand in lines for the windows, the elevators, the cafe, or the modern art they can already find at Kunsthal. No, they stand for the collection that is hidden away and rationed as portions of food in an old Communist regime of a central European country.

It's certainly not worth 20 euros. I would even argue that the 1 euro I spent on my Musemkaart-reduced ticket might have been too much. Go for the Piranesi if you have a reduced price, and in any other case, spend the money on a train to Amsterdam and visit Rijksmuseum. Or buy yourself a lovely dinner.

In brief - stay away or run for the Piranesi (if it's still on) and stay away afterwards.

I haven't been to a tour, so please refer to other commenters for this part of...