With Screen Melancholy by Taiwanese artist Li Yi-Fan, the Nederlands Fotomuseum takes the next step in an updated direction: a more international programme in which photography and image are approached as a focal point within art, technology, media and society. In this context, Dutch photography is viewed as part of the wider world.

The role of the Nederlands Fotomuseum as a knowledge institute will also be further developed. The collection of 6.5 million objects and the museum’s expertise and research capabilities form the starting point. The collection, research and exhibitions will be more closely connected. The museum is working towards a dynamic programme of its own in which looking thoughtfully at the past and contemporary developments go hand in hand.

General & Artistic Director Zippora Elders considers photography in relation to the world in which images are created and acquire, and have an influence on, meaning. This vision will be further developed across all aspects of the museum.

“We reflect on what photography is and what it means, its varied history and the many forms and possibilities the medium offers. In the future, the museum will focus on bringing collection and programming, knowledge sharing and critical looking, seeing and sensing, the photographic object and image culture, Rotterdam and the world, Dutch photography and broader developments closer together.”
— Zippora Elders Tahalele, General & Artistic Director

Awareness of Images

Screen Melancholy by Li Yi-Fan opens on 21 January. The installation made a strong impression at the Venice Biennale, one of the world’s best-known international art exhibitions, and now comes from Venice to Rotterdam.

Li Yi-Fan examines how digital images are created and challenges the boundary between real and virtual. Video, virtual puppets, scale models and large 3D-printed sculptures come together in a single presentation.

Visitors take a seat on enlarged body parts, while digital figures on screen mimic human forms. As you watch, it becomes increasingly difficult to tell what is body and what is image, what is physical and what is digital, what’s on screen and what happens behind the surface. In this way, the new exhibition invites visitors to look critically at how images are created, distributed and viewed.

Large Exhibitions in 2027

This focus on the power and influence of images returns in various exhibitions and collaborations in 2027, in connection with the Dutch field.

Martin Parr’s iconic Global Warning is coming to Rotterdam, in collaboration with Jeu de Paume in Paris. The Nederlands Fotomuseum will also present a major overview by Angèle Etoundi Essamba, with spatial design by Studio L A. Magnum photographer Newsha Tavakolian will have a multimedia exhibition that will travel through Europe after Rotterdam.

Throughout the year there will be a diverse range of exhibitions and presentations relating to current topics in Dutch photography and beyond.

Space for Images and Knowledge in Santos

The new direction will not only be felt in the exhibition spaces. Other areas of warehouse Santos will also continue to take shape in the coming period.

In the freely accessible entrance hall, the museum will create more attention for spatial photography, moving image, film and video art, digital work and current developments in print and magazines in the Netherlands. Since the reopening, the library has been freely accessible as a place for learning and inspiration, as well as a place to work next to the museum’s coffee bar.

Step by step, artistic interventions that reflect the connecting curatorial direction will also be introduced throughout the rest of the building. In addition, museum-wide research is underway to enrich the permanent displays. This will give visitors an accessible introduction to photographic theory and greater insight into the significant influence photography and images have on societal debates and shifts in perspectives.

Rotterdam and the World

In spring 2027, various collaborations around Rotterdam’s creative landscape will continue to be developed.

During Museumnacht010, the museum will work with Rotterdam-based neighbours and creatives on workshops, guided tours, music and thought-provoking conversations about photography and images.

On Wednesday evening, 17 March, at the start of Art Rotterdam and Unseen Week, the Nederlands Fotomuseum will be transformed for a lively night of sound, images and collective experience. This site-specific activation, in which the boundaries between exhibition, performance and club blur, is part of a unique international collaboration that will be revealed at a later date.

On Friday, 19 March, the Nederlands Fotomuseum will also moderate a programme of talks and panels during Unseen at Ahoy.

This coming spring, the museum will announce a selection of acquisitions realized in 2026 from photographers and artists in the Netherlands. In doing so, the personal and documentary aspects of the collection will be more closely connected with contemporary photographic practices.