Publications

In 1926, Willem de Kooning leaves Rotterdam for New York as a stowaway. Willem de Kooning Rotterdam New York explores how Rotterdam in the 1920s, a rapidly growing port city undergoing cultural change, laid the foundations for De Kooning’s artistic development. His training at the art academy and his work at the design studio Giddings & Zonen proved to be influential in shaping his later career as an artist.

The publication also follows his arrival in New York, where he began a new life as a migrant and eventually became one of the pioneers of Abstract Expressionism. With contributions by Anne Kremers, Wim Pijbes and Ludo van Halem.

Published by: nai010
Design: Irma Boom
184 pages / paperback
Bilingual edition in Dutch and English
€24.95

Available at the Fenix Shop and in bookshops across the Netherlands.

Through spontaneous encounters on the street, in the park and in the library, Rotterdam-based artist Efrat Zehavi gets to know the people who live in her city. She asks everyone the same question: where are you going? She soon discovers that they tend to tell her where they come from instead.

Commissioned by Fenix, Zehavi sculpted 116 Rotterdam residents in colourful clay. Together, these portraits form an artwork and the accompanying publication Where Are We Going? The book also features Fragments of the City, snippets from conversations between Zehavi and her models. Where Are We Going? is a tribute to the people who bring colour to Rotterdam.

Published by: Fenix
Design: Sybren Kuiper
19 × 26 cm / hardcover / 352 pages
Bilingual edition in Dutch and English
€29.50

Available at the Fenix Shop.

What makes Rotterdam feel like home? In this book, you discover the city through the eyes of newcomers, one word at a time, from A to Z. Rotterdam ABC is for all Rotterdammers, young and old, who want to get to know the city better. The book was created following interviews and workshops with newcomers to the city. Illustrated by Linhuei Chen.

Published by: Trichis
Design: Otto Mende
Language: Dutch
20 × 20 cm / hardcover / 28 pages
€12.50

Available at the Fenix Shop and in bookshops across the Netherlands.

Fenix – The Museum as Metaphor is a visual journey through the transformation of Fenix. The former Holland-America Line warehouse, built in 1923 for the storage and transhipment of goods, has become a museum. At its heart stands the Tornado, the striking double staircase designed by architect Ma Yansong of MAD.

Over five years, Rotterdam-based photographer Rubén Dario Kleimeer documented every stage of the transformation. Iwan Baan photographed the finished building. The book includes essays by Ma Yansong, András Szántó, Andrea D’Antrassi, Anne Kremers and Wim Pijbes.

Authors: Ma Yansong, András Szántó, Andrea D’Antrassi, Anne Kremers and Wim Pijbes
Published by: Skira Editore
Design: Giulia Dolce
Language: English
25 × 29 cm / hardcover / 239 pages
€65

Available at the Fenix Shop and in bookshops worldwide.

This book brings together the 200 photographs featured in the exhibition The Family of Migrants. Meet people on the move: boarding trains, crossing borders and building new lives. The Family of Migrants brings together iconic and previously unpublished photographs from around the world, spanning the period from 1905 to the present day.

Featuring photographs by Lewis Hine, Chien-Chi Chang, Abbas Attar, Wang Fuchun, Dorothea Lange, Eva Besnyö, Ara Güler, Ata Kandó, Miyako Ishiuchi and Ernest Cole, among others. The book also includes personal essays by writers Stine Jensen and Rodaan Al Galidi, and acclaimed chef Asma Khan, among others.

Authors: Rodaan Al Galidi, Rim Battal, Joumana El Zein Khoury, Stine Jensen, Asma Khan, Hanneke Mantel, C Pam Zhang, Danny Ramadan and Anke Reitz
Published by: Hannibal Books / Kulte Editions (Arabic edition)
Design: Tim Bisschop
Languages: Dutch, English, French and Arabic
24 × 31 cm / hardcover / 320 pages
€55

Available at the Fenix Shop and in bookshops worldwide.

In Kofferverhalen, you’ll read ten stories of migration, exploring love, farewell, belonging, homesickness and longing. Meet Willemiene, who boards the Trans-Siberian Express with her children to move back to the Netherlands from China, leaving a failed relationship behind. Read about Gandolfo, who moves from Sicily to Rotterdam as a guest worker and longs for his family. And Larysa, a young mother fleeing the Russian army in Ukraine with her daughter.

Abdelkader Benali and Karin Amatmoekrim each wrote five stories. Adriaan van Dis contributes an introductory essay on the meaning of the suitcase.

You can also listen to the suitcase stories in the Suitcase Labyrinth at Fenix, an installation made up of 2,000 suitcases donated to Fenix from the Netherlands and abroad. Each suitcase carries a story.

Authors: Karin Amatmoekrim, Abdelkader Benali, and Adriaan van Dis
Published by: Atlas Contact
Design: Nanja Toebak
Language: Dutch
12.6 × 17 cm / paperback / 190 pages
€22.99

Available at the Fenix Shop and in bookshops across the Netherlands.

All Directions features 28 highlights from Fenix’s opening exhibition of the same name. Artists from around the world share their perspectives on migration, telling stories of love and farewell, of returning home and finding a place to belong. Their works show that migration is timeless and universal, and above all, about people.

The publication explores works by artists including Shilpa Gupta, Willem de Kooning, Rineke Dijkstra, Omar Victor Diop, Yinka Shonibare and Małgorzata Mirga-Tas.

Published by: Fenix
Design: Team Thursday
Languages: Dutch and English
15 × 22 cm / paperback / 126 pages
€10

Available at the Fenix Shop.