'In the depot we show the residents of Rotterdam their own collection.’
Roelof Prins is the Director of De Verre Bergen Foundation and a committee member of the Collectiegebouw Foundation. He is closely involved with the depot in both posts.
Where does the name ‘De Verre Bergen’ come from?
De Verre Bergen (The Distant Mountains) has wonderful associations with concepts like the future, perspective and ambition. As a philanthropic institution our ambition is to make our city even better and more attractive. Our principal focus is on social initiatives. Always in Rotterdam, because our world ends at the local authority’s boundaries.
The depot is not about a social problem, it’s about art. Is there any link with your other activities?
We finance various projects and the depot is indeed an odd man out. But what appealed to us enormously is that what you are doing is something entirely new in the museum world. You’re making the whole collection accessible to the public. And you’re not doing that in the museum itself, but showing everything you have in a depot ‘uncurated’. So that visitors can say: those are the ten things I really like or I think go together. And obviously it’s about the city’s collection, which was given to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen to manage and to look after. It’s great that the people of Rotterdam will soon be able to see all of their own art treasures.
Has the foundation been involved with the depot for a very long time?
Back in 2009 it was clear that the museum needed a new depot. If you were to go ahead and build a large ‘box’ in a field and put a fence around it, it would cost a huge amount of money. And if you wanted to make it into a publicly accessible building, so as to attract visitors from outside, that would cost quite a few millions more. So then we said ‘we’ll make up the difference’. Since that time the amount has gone up a bit, but that’s by the way.
If it really involves huge sums, why are you convinced that it’s a good investment?
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is the city’s most important cultural centre. And it is Rotterdam’s ambition to be a global city. So, the facilities have to be world class. And admittedly there’s a competitive element in it as well. Every day in the summer we see cruise ships arrive and 80% of the passengers go to Amsterdam. It would be really great if more of them were to say: I’m going to walk to the museum and the depot because they’re also fascinating places to visit.
What further expectations do you have of the depot?
We also hope that the building will become a city icon. There’s pride in that, but excitement too. The depot has a wow factor, perhaps even more than the Markthal. It is incredibly unusual in terms of the architecture and the technical ingenuity of the construction. If you can believe the builders from BAM, the depot can best be compared to a dam – not least in terms of the amount of concrete and steel that’s going into it.
'The depot has a wow factor, perhaps even more than the Markthal.’
Roelof Prins, Director of De Verre Bergen Foundation.
How do you keep your finger on the pulse as a co-financer?
We can do that extremely effectively because the Collectiegebouw Foundation, which we and the city council jointly manage, is the owner of the depot. As a manager you are totally involved with all aspects of the build. For instance, I’ve been to the factory in China to see how the doubly curved mirrors for the façade are made. It’s very precise work, because you want an outside wall in which all the mirrors fit together seamlessly. The same is true of the display cases for the atrium. They are gigantic, ten metres high, with doors eight metres high, from one sheet of glass. A decision about them had to be taken quickly, before the roof of the depot could be put on. The museum had no budget for them so we paid for the display cases. Our involvement also ensures that things needed to achieve the desired quality happen.
Your aim is to make Rotterdam even better and more attractive. What does the depot contribute to that?
The new depot has an important spin-off for the surrounding streets. The whole
Museumpark area will be greened. It will improve the quality of life and make it an attractive meeting place for the city’s residents and visitors from outside.
Depot Journal
This article has been published before in Depot Journal #3 which is part of a series of six. If you would like to receive all the printed Depot journals by post, please send an email to info@boijmans.nl with your full name and address, reference ‘receive Depot Journals’.