There are 80 rooms and five floors with exposure […]
From the outside, Berlin remains the same. Serious architecture, surrounded by greenery, in one of the busiest capitals in Europe.
But inside this 18 meter high building in the Mitte district, something seems to be amiss (and, at the same time, everything is going according to plan).
Opened in 2008, the Boros Collection is an art gallery located inside a former Soviet bunker built in 1942, under the supervision of Adolf Hitler’s chief architect, the German Albert Speer.
After the devastating passage of the Russians through Germany and the fall of the most famous wall in the world in 1989, the country will never be the same again. Not even the bunker.
The location has been an air raid shelter, a post-war Soviet occupation penitentiary, a textile warehouse and even an address for rave, in the 90s, however, Berlin did not cling to the past and immediately tried to make art with its own history. Or make history with art.
In 2003 the place was acquired by the couple Karen and Christian Boros with the aim of hosting and making their private collection of contemporary art accessible to the public.
Once, in an interview with the German magazine Freunde von Freunden, Boros said that he had always wanted to live with his wife and his art, and not in a “building for us and another for the works of art.”
That’s why gallery guides often say that visiting the Boros Collection is like arriving in someone’s home.
Currently the gallery has a collection of around 700 pieces, some of which are exhibited in the 80 rooms distributed over the five floors of the building, on the top of which is the 450 m2 penthouse of the billionaire Boros.
And there we never know what art is and what history is.
During the 1h30 tours, which must be guided, old concrete walls frame current art installations, and old rusty rebars stand out in renovated spaces.
The old bunker has walls up to two meters thick and takes the visitor back to the times when Berlin lived under the rigid socialist system of the Soviet Union.
Everything is so different in this gallery that none of the works on display are identified. “This is not a museum. It’s a recreational basement,” Boros describes.
Berlin was never the same again. Much less that bunker destined to remain just history.
LEARN MORE
Sammlung Boros bunker
Reinhardtstraße, 20 (Mitte – Berlin)
Guided tours (€18 per person) must be booked in advance.
www.sammlung-boros.de
Source: Terra
Ben Stock is a lifestyle journalist and author at Gossipify. He writes about topics such as health, wellness, travel, food and home decor. He provides practical advice and inspiration to improve well-being, keeps readers up to date with latest lifestyle news and trends, known for his engaging writing style, in-depth analysis and unique perspectives.
