On 20 June 2021, World Refugee Day, Mayor Aboutaleb unveiled a new work of art by British artist Gavin Turk at the head of the Wilhelminapier. The artwork is a more than 3,5 meters high open door of green and red painted bronze. The door has a door handle and keyhole, also cast in bronze. L'Âge d'Or, as the artwork is called, is located directly opposite the FENIX Emigrant Museum, which has given the sculpture to the municipality of Rotterdam on long-term loan. The head of the Wilhelmina Pier is a fitting location, because in the 19th and 20th centuries, more than three million emigrants left the Rotterdam quays for the other side of the world. From all over Europe, they left Rotterdam and went on to a new life. L'Âge d'Or symbolizes hopes, dreams and opportunities as a door that is always open. A door without a building, but as a symbolic transition between two imaginary worlds, an old and a new one. L'Âge d'Or is the sixth in a unique series of eight works of art, in which all doors have a different colour, shape and handle. The door is reminiscent of the painting Victory by Rene Margritte. The title L'Âge d'Or (Golden Age) is a reference to the surrealist film of the same name by Luis Buñuel. For more information: Sculpture International Rotterdam.
