NSJ x Fenix
On the central square in Hudson hall, you’ll find Hotel Europe by Harald Vlugt, from the collection of Fenix. Four large tables together form a meters-long map of Europe. If you look at the work up close, you see that the map consists of hundreds of envelopes.
In 1997, Vlugt sent 715 letters from his studio to cities throughout Europe, addressed to: H. Vlugt, Hotel Europe. A massive logistical operation: the sent envelopes together traveled over one million kilometers and 25,000 postal workers unknowingly participated in the process. A large portion returned with the note: ‘Undeliverable, address unknown’. Together, the returned envelopes form a green map of Europe. But you can also see gray areas; the envelopes that never came back and that Vlugt is still waiting for.
Hotel Europe is about traveling without moving, and the stories that develop along the way. Everyone can find a different meaning when looking at the map. At the festival, we invite you to share your North Sea Jazz experience with someone, anywhere in the world. Write about your adventure on a special North Sea Jazz postcard and send it right then and there.
About Fenix
Fenix is the new art museum about migration in Rotterdam. Artists, photographers, chefs and other creators tell stories that cross borders. About love and goodbyes, returning and feeling at home, identity and the hunt for happiness. At this historical place of departure and arrival, where millions of Europeans departed at some point and people from all over the world arrived, the museum shows that migration is of all ages and deeply personal.
fenix.nl
